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.