The Dirge of the Sea + 

Come! Come! I have waited long! + 

My love is old, + 

My arms are strong; + 

My heart is bold; + 

I would woo thee, now, + 

With the wave-kiss cold + 

On thy pallid brow; + 

Thou art mine, thou art mine! My very own! + 

Thine ears shall hear + 

My eternal moan; + 

Always near + 

Thou’lt feel my lips, + 

And the bathing tear + 

Where my sorrow drips. + 

Thou, my king forever, behold thy throne! + 

Reign in thy majesty, all alone. + 

None! None wept for thee, + 

Nearing the verge + 

Of eternity! + 

I, thy solemn dirge + 

Will chant for aye + 

Wide as the wave-merge + 

Into sky. + 

I love thee! Thou art my chosen own! + 

Thy heart, like mine, + 

Was cold as stone, + 

Thine eyes could shine + 

Like my blue waves fair; + 

Thy lips, like wine, + 

Curved to kisses rare! + 

Hard as my waves were the eyes that shone, + 

And the wine as deadly! Come, love, alone! + 

Float! Float, on the swelling wave! + 

Long is the hearse, + 

Wide the grave; + 

Thy pall is a curse + 

From the fading shore + 

A broken verse + 

From a heart wrung sore! + 

“Life’s stream’s wreck-strown!” Ah, like my own! + 

The words are low + 

As a dying groan; + 

The voice thrills so, + 

It might rouse thy breast + 

With pity’s glow, + 

Wert thou like the rest! + 

But thou, my hero, wert never known + 

To feel as a human; thou stoodst, alone. + 

Down! Down! Behold the wrecks! + 

I strew the deep + 

With these human specks! + 

No faith I keep + 

With their moral trust; + 

See how I heap + 

Their crumbling dust! + 

I sneered in their faces, my own, my own, + 

As they knelt to pray + 

When the ships went down; + 

I flung my spray + 

In their dying eyes, + 

And laughed at the way + 

It drowned their cries! + 

On the shore they heard the exultant tone, + 

And said: “The Sea laughs.” Ah, I laughed alone. + 

Now! Now, we twain shall go, + 

Love-locked, + 

Laughing so! + 

The fools ye mocked + 

With your tender eyes, + 

The trusts ye rocked + 

With your cradling lies, + 

E’en like these wretches, my own, my own, + 

Shall rot in clay + 

Or crumbled bone, + 

Thou shalt hold thy way, + 

Day-kissed and fair, + 

Where the wild waves play + 

In the sun-thick air! + 

My arms, my kiss, my tears, my moan, + 

Ye shall know for aye, where we wander lone. + 

Love! Love! Thou wert like to me! + 

Thy luring gaze + 

Rolled relentlessly! + 

The marsh-light blaze + 

To some human soul, + 

Down the darkn’ing maze + 

To Ruin’s goal. + 

Ah, how ye crushed them, my beautiful own! + 

Like whistled leaves + 

Around thee strown, + 

Whirled the dead beliefs + 

Of each long-mourned life! + 

Here, no one grieves: + 

Neither tears nor strife + 

Appeal to the Sea, where its wrecks are thrown! + 

Thou shalt stand in their midst, and smile, alone! + 

Laugh! Laugh! O form of light! + 

Death hides + 

Thy faithless sight! + 

The flowing tides + 

Of thy heart are still; + 

Yet are wrecks thy brides, + 

For it is my will + 

That that which on earth made thy heaven, my own, + 

May strew around + 

Thy eternal throne! + 

The gurgling sound + 

Of the dying cry, + 

The gushing wound + 

Of heart-agony, + 

Were thy joy in life! Now the Sea makes known + 

Thy realm in death! Thy heaven, alone! + 

Years! Years, ye shall mix with me! + 

Ye shall grow a part + 

Of the laughing Sea; + 

Of the moaning heart + 

Of the glittered wave + 

Of the sun-gleam’s dart + 

In the ocean-grave. + 

Fair, cold, and faithless wert thou, my own! + 

For that I love + 

Thy heart of stone! + 

From the heights above + 

To the depths below, + 

Where dread things move, + 

There is naught can show + 

A life so trustless! Proud be thy crown! + 

Ruthless, like none, save the Sea, alone! + 