By the sea I sit and dream
Of things that have passed, and now
Are fading as fades the gleam
Of sail on the ocean's brow,
And I hear that song again
She sang to the world before
Men had crossed her glit'ring plain
To die on the further shore.
'Tis a song that, like the wind
In a stormy counterpart,
Rouses and rolls the restless mind,
Till it breaks against the heart—
Till it hurls its foam amain
On the reefs which gird that lee—
And the heart is swept again

By that yearning for the sea.
Ah, the sea it sings that song
Whenever the moon is full—
Whenever the wind is strong,
And the tides are bountiful—
And it throws a spell o'er one
That my heart cannot withstand,
So clearly do I foresee

That I shall not die on land.