The Sea

HE sea, the sea, the open sea, The blue, the fresh, the ever free; Without a mark, without abound, 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, Andsilence wheresoe'er I go. If a storm should come and awake the deep, What matter? I shall ride and sleep. I love, O, how I love to ride On the fierce, foaming, bursting tide, Where every madwave drowns the moon, And whistles aloft its tempest tune And tells how goeth the world below, Andwhy the southwest wind doth blow! I never was on the dull, tame shore But I loved the great sea more and more, SMALL BEGINNINGS Andbackward flew to her billowy breast, Like abird that seeketh her mother's nestAnd amother 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; The whale it whistled, the porpoise rolled, Andthe dolphins bared their backs of gold; And never was heard such an outcry wild, As welcomed to life the ocean child. Ihave lived since then, in calm and strife, Full fifty summers a rover's life, Withwealth to spend, and a power to range, But never have sought or sighed for change: Anddeath, whenever he comes to me, Shall come on the wide, unbounded sea!