THE GREAT SEDUCER

Who looks too long from his window

At the gray, wide, cold sea,

Where breakers scour the beaches

With fingers of sharp foam;

Who looks too long thro the gray pane

At the mad, wild, bold sea,

Shall sell his hearth to a stranger

And turn his back on home.

Who looks too long from his window —

Tho his wife waits by the fireside —

At a ship's wings in the offing,

At a gull's wings on air,

Shall latch his gate behind him,

Tho his cattle call from the byre-side,

And kiss his wife — and leave her —

And wander everywhere.

Who looks too long in the twilight,

Or the dawn-light, or the noon-light,

Who sees an anchor lifted

And hungers past content,

Shall pack his chest for the world's end,

For alien sun — or moonlight,

And follow the wind, sateless,

To Disillusionment!