Sea Call

My old love for the water has come back again⁠— I had forgotten its surging, so long, so long away; Sapphire-blue in the sunlight and green-gray in the rain, And the same waves cresting, and the same sharp spray, There was left a wave in my heart when I went to the inland towns, Something that moved and murmured in the days when I forgot; Vivid flowers of the gardens or thick long grass of the downs⁠— What were the sweets of the summer days, where the calling waves were not? My old love for the water has come back once more; The wave of the deep draws full, and the wave in my heart lifts high; This is my own old country and my own old shore ... And I cannot leave the water till the day I die.