THE SPELL OF THE SEA.

By the sea I sit and dream

Of things that have passed, and now

Are fading as fades the gleam

Of sail on the ocean's brow,

And I hear that song again

She sang to the world before

Men had crossed her glit'ring plain

To die on the further shore.

'Tis a song that, like the wind

In a stormy counterpart,

Rouses and rolls the restless mind,

Till it breaks against the heart—

Till it hurls its foam amain

On the reefs which gird that lee—

And the heart is swept again

By that yearning for the sea.

Ah, the sea it sings that song

Whenever the moon is full—

Whenever the wind is strong,

And the tides are bountiful—

And it throws a spell o'er one

That my heart cannot withstand,

So clearly do I foresee

That I shall not die on land.