I made a choice some years ago
to sail the sea no more.
I do not regret the life and love
I have made here on the sea.
But I am haunted by the temptress
my first true love, the sea.
My dark and stormy mistress
I hear her call to me.
I am torn between my life ashore
and the call to sail away.
My love, my life is needed here
I am duty bound to stay.
Yet, often I will walk the beach
throughout the darkest hours.
To hear my lovers mournful call
to feel her awesome power.
Oh, cradle of all Earthly life,
great mother of the sea.
Cast off the lines that hold my heart
and let my soul sail free.
In the end I will return to you
my final love, the deep.
I' ll pull your waters over me
enternally to sleep.
~Sailor~
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sean and the sky.
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
and the wheel's kick and wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
and a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the runnign tide
is a wild call and clear a call that may not be denied;
and all I ask is a windy day the white clouds flying,
and the flung spray and the blown spume and the sea-gulls crying,
I must go down to the seas again to the vagrant gupsy life
to the gull's way and whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife :
and all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
and quiet sleep ana a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
~John Masefiled~ (1878-1967)
