XVII + 

The Ocean Strand + 

O leave the labouring roadways of the town, + 

The shifting faces and the changeful hue + 

Of markets, and broad echoing streets that drown + 

The heart’s own silent music. Though they too + 

Sing in their proper rhythm, and still delight + 

The friendly ear that loves warm human kind, + 

Yet it is good to leave them all behind, + 

Now when from lily dawn to purple night + 

Summer is queen, + 

Summer is queen in all the happy land. + 

Far, far away among the valleys green + 

Let us go forth and wander hand in hand + 

Beyond those solemn hills that we have seen + 

So often welcome home the falling sun + 

Into their cloudy peaks when day was done⁠— + 

Beyond them till we find the ocean strand + 

And hear the great waves run, + 

With the waste song whose melodies I’d follow + 

And weary not for many a summer day, + 

Born of the vaulted breakers arching hollow + 

Before they flash and scatter into spray. + 

On, if we should be weary of their play + 

Then I would lead you further into land + 

Where, with their ragged walls, the stately rocks + 

Shut in smooth courts and paved with quiet sand + 

To silence dedicate. The sea-god’s flocks + 

Have rested here, and mortal eyes have seen + 

By great adventure at the dead of noon + 

A lonely nereid drowsing half a-swoon + 

Buried beneath her dark and dripping locks. + 