MY REALM.
Reading edition
BY ALBERT LEE.
When I was quite a little chap They took me to the sea; A broad-brimmed hat, a wooden spade, And pail they gave to me. They turned my little trousers up, They stripped me of my socks, And let me paddle in the waves, And climb the weed-grown rocks. I built great walls and fortresses With parapets and moats; I dug deep lakes and waterways To sail my paper boats. And thus I learned to love the sea, The shells, the surf, the sand, For, truly, all this seemed to me A very fairy-land Where I was king of all the shore So far as I could see, And Ocean was a docile thing, Obedient to me. For when I built a fort of sand And gave it to the foe, I called upon the tide to come And wash the fortress low. But when I knew the flood must turn, I shook my little spade, And drove the curling breakers back As far as I could wade. Oh, truly, for big sailing-ships I think God made the sea; But all the shore, the surf, the sand, He made for little me.