unshut

“Now you must walk through. With your eyes unshut. With your heart unlocked. And your mind as free as the mighty sea.”

He died in 1817, and his epitaph is as follows:— His labor done, no more to town, His onward course he bends; His team’s unshut, his whip’s laid up, And here his journey ends.

The unshut doors afforded this; but the deep dust, that for years had been accumulating on the floors, showed traces of having been recently stirred by shuffling feet—leaving no doubt upon the mind of Oriole, that men had been in that room, and had gone out of it, only an hour or two before.

Sand-strewn caverns, cool and deep, Where the winds are all asleep; Where the spent lights quiver and gleam; Where the salt weed sways in the stream; Where the sea-beasts, ranged all round, Feed in the ooze of their pasture-ground; Where the sea-snakes coil and twine, Dry their mail, and bask in the brine; Where great whales come sailing by, Sail and sail, with unshut eye, Round the world for ever and aye?

I start out of my sleep to think Some day I may forget Their food and drink; Or, the house door left unshut, The hare may run till it's found The horn's sweet note and the tooth of the hound.