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!