The Voice of the Sea

I hear the deep voice of the sea, As slowly it breaks on the shore, With the self-same tone To my childhood known— Its music for evermore!

How sublimely its accents fall And pierce each recess of the soul, Recalling the past With a trumpet’s blast, And a might beyond control!

It tells of the gay infant hours When I play’d on the sun-lit sand, Whilst each shell and stone Was a wealth unknown, And the beach a fairy-land.

It speaks of the wild boyish days When I roam’d to the rocks afar, Where the black sea-weed Cracks loud to the tread, And shell-fish in thousand are.

All times on my spirit come back When I’ve dwelt by thy shore, O sea; Each friend I have known, Each look and each tone, Now cruelly reft from me.

Thy voice is the voice of a dirge, And mournfully sighs for the dead; Sound on, then, thy knell, Like a funeral bell, For the loved who from earth have fled.

Yet Hope seems to sweeten the sound, Bright Faith, and her sister Love; For whilst on thy brink, I cheerfully think, Of the calm blue heavens above!