The Sea

The sea, the sea, the open sea,
The blue, the fresh, the ever free;
Without a mark, without a bound,
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,
And silence wheresoever I go.
If a storm should come and awake the
      deep,
What matter? I shall ride and sleep.

I love, oh! how I love to ride
On the fierce, foaming bursting tide,
Where every mad wave drowns the
      moon,
And whistles aloft its tempest tune,
And tells how goeth the world below,
And why the southwest wind doth
      blow!
I never was on the dull, tame shore
But I loved the great sea more and
      more,
And backward flew to her billowy
      breast,
Like a bird that seeketh her mother's
      nest,--
And a mother she was and is to me,
For I was born on the open sea.

        ~ Barry Cornwall

A Sea Song

A wet sheet and a flowing sea;
    A wind that follows fast,
And fills the white and rustling sail
    And bends the gallant mast;
And bends the gallant mast, my boys,
    While like the eagle free,
Away the good ship flies, and leaves
    Old England on the lee.

O for a soft and gentle wind!
    I heard a fair one cry;
But give to me the snoring breeze
    And white waves heaving high;
And white waves heaving high, my lads,
    The good ship light and free--
The world of waters is our home,
    And merry men are we.

There's tempest in yon horned moon,
    And lightning in yon cloud;
But hark the music, mariners!
    The wind is piping loud;
The wind is piping loud, my boys,
    The lightning flashes free--
While the hollow oak our palace is,
    Our heritage--the sea.

      ~ Allan Cunningham