  Oh, the sea! the sea! how it stirs my soul, As its bright bounding billows onward roll; Unfettered they toss their crests on high, As if to assault the far vaulted sky. Oh, the sea! the sea! when it murmurs sweet, And its silver waves fall down at my feet; And it flashes and ripples in sunny smiles, Far away by a thousand happy isles. Oh, the sea! the sea! when the wild winds roar, And its thunderous waves rush on the shore; And the dread tempest sweeps the storm-torn sky, And the world is drown’d in its madden’d cry. Oh, the sea! the sea! when the stars’ pale light Twinkle afar through the realms of night; And the silver moon looks down on the tide, O’er its undulating bosom far and wide. Oh, the sea! the sea! unchained and free; A limitless, typical mystery Of eternity; how it rolls, it rolls, And its awesome voice is warning men’s souls! Oh, the sea! the sea! what of the lone graves Of the lov’d and lost in thy unknown caves? Where are the ships of a thousand stern years? Man’s buried hopes, and his million tears? But the sea! the sea! ’tis my glowing theme, And I love to ponder beside it and dream, With the lights and shadows falling between, The weird phantom land of the might have been. Oh, the sea! the sea! when I yearn for rest, And the sun falls down in the purple west, I seek thy shadowed and wave-worn shore, And restful repose my bosom steals o’er. |
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