'And the being lost'

“The liberal arts lie eastward of this shore.

Choppy the seas at first. Then the long swells

And the being lost. Oh, the centuries of salt

Till the surf booms and comes more land.’’

— From “The Seven Sleepers,’’ by Mark Van Doren (1894-1972), a once famous poet, teacher, critic and essayist. He lived much of his time in Cornwall, Conn., in the Litchfield Hills, a locale about which he often wrote.

In the Litchfield Hills