SEA RHAPSODY

Never again, never again

Did I hope to breathe such joy!

The sea is blue and the winds halloo

Up to the sun “Ahoy!”

“Ahoy!” they shout and the mists they rout

From the mountain-tops go streaming

In happy play where the gulls sway,

And a million waves are gleaming!

And every wave, billowing brave,

Is tipped with a wild delight.

A garden of isles around me smiles,

Bathed in the blue noon light,

The rude brown bunk of the fishing junk

Seems fair as a sea-king's palace:

O wine of the sky the gods have spilt

Out of its crystal chalice!

For wine is the wind, wine the sea,

Wine for the sinking spirit,

To lift it up from the cling of clay

Into high Bliss — or near it!

So let me drink till I cease to think,

And know with a sting of rapture

That joy is yet as wide as the world

For men, at last, to capture!