'Whither, thou turbid wave?
Whither, with so much haste,
As if a thief wert thou?'

'I am the Wave of Life,
Stained with my margin's dust;
From the struggle and the strife
Of the narrow stream I fly
To the Sea's immensity,
To wash from me the slime
Of the muddy banks of Time.'

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-wave-from-the-german-of-tiedge/