A Name in the Sand

Alone I walked the ocean strand;
A pearly shell was in my hand:
I stooped and wrote upon the sand
My name—the year—the day.
As onward from the spot I passed,
One lingering look behind I cast;
A wave came rolling high and fast,
And washed my lines away.

And so, methought, 'twill shortly be
With every mark on earth from me:
A wave of dark oblivion's sea
Will sweep across the place
Where I have trod the sandy shore
Of time, and been, to be no more,
Of me—my day—the name I bore,
To leave no track no trace.

And yet, with Him who counts the sands
And holds the waters in His hands,
I know a lasting record stands.
My hope is in His name.
In all the wonders He has wrought.
Whose power fills my deepest thought
And in those fleeting moments sought,
The glory due His name.

A combination of "A Name in the Sand" by Hannah Flagg Gould (from An American Anthology, 1787–1900: Selections Illustrating the Editor’s Critical Review of American Poetry in the Nineteenth Century), and the poem as published in The Sectarian, November 1903, William M. Smoot.