The Sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free! Without a mark, without a bound, It runneth the earth’s wide regions round; It plays with the clouds; it mocks the skies; Or like a cradled creature lies. I ’m on the sea! I ’m on the sea! I am where I would ever be; With the blue above, and the blue below, And silence wheresoe’er I go; If a storm should come and wake the deep, What matter? I shall ride and sleep. I love, O, how I love to ride On the fierce, foaming, bursting tide, When every mad wave drowns the moon, Or whistles aloft his tempest tune, And tells how goeth the world below, And why the sou’west blasts do blow. I never was on the dull, tame shore, But I loved the great sea more and more, And backwards flew to her billowy breast, Like a bird that seeketh its mother’s nest; And a mother she was, and is, to me; For I was born on the open sea! The waves were white, and red the morn, In the noisy hour when I was born; And the whale it whistled, the porpoise rolled, And the dolphins bared their backs of gold; And never was heard such an outcry wild As welcomed to life the ocean child! I ’ve lived since then, in calm and strife, Full fifty summers, a sailor’s life, With wealth to spend and a power to range, But never have sought nor sighed for change; And Death, whenever he comes to me, Shall come on the wild, unbounded sea!
The Sea
More from Poet
-
Day dawned;—within a curtained room, Filled to faintness with perfume, A lady lay at point of doom. Day closed;—a Child had seen the light: But, for the lady fair and bright, She rested in undreaming night. Spring rose;—the lady’s grave was green; And near it, oftentimes, was seen A gentle Boy...
-
The Sea was bright, and the bark rode well; The breeze bore the tone of the vesper bell; ’T was a gallant bark with a crew as brave As ever launched on the heaving wave. She shone in the light of declining day, And each sail was set, and each heart was gay. They neared the land where in beauty...
-
O Thou vast Ocean! ever-sounding Sea! Thou symbol of a drear immensity! Thou thing that windest round the solid world Like a huge animal, which, downward hurled From the black clouds, lies weltering and alone, Lashing and writhing till its strength be gone! Thy voice is like the thunder, and thy...
-
The Sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free! Without a mark, without a bound, It runneth the earth’s wide regions round; It plays with the clouds; it mocks the skies; Or like a cradled creature lies. I ’m on the sea! I ’m on the sea! I am where I would ever be; With the...
-
Gamarra is a dainty steed, Strong, black, and of a noble breed, Full of fire, and full of bone, With all his line of fathers known; Fine his nose, his nostrils thin, But blown abroad by the pride within! His mane is like a river flowing, And his eyes like embers glowing In the darkness of the...