Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean—roll! / Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
The stanza follows the one beginning “There is a pleasure in the pathless woods”. It contrasts the sea, which bears no trace of human ravage, with the land that man marks “with ruin”.
Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart, / ’Tis woman’s whole existence;
She walks in beauty, like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, / There is a rapture on the lonely shore, / There is society where none intrudes, / By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness;
All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely players;
Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me –