billow quotes

There grows the wild ash; and a time-stricken willow Looks chidingly down on the mirth of the billow, As, like some gay child that sad monitor scorning, It lightly laughs back to the laugh of the morning.

-JeremiahJohn Callanan
  'Gougane Barra'.

A pard-like Spirit, beautiful and swift A love in desolation masked;a Power Girt round with weakness;it can scarce uplift The weight of the superincumbent hour; It is a dying lamp, a falling shower, A breaking billow;even whilst we speak Is it not broken? Shelley

- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Adonais, stanza 32.