← Table of contents
The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900

Part 4 — DOUGLAS HYDE

Reading edition

b. 1861

858.

My Grief on the Sea

FROM THE IRISH

MY grief on the sea, How the waves of it roll! For they heave between me And the love of my soul! Abandon’d, forsaken, To grief and to care, Will the sea ever waken Relief from despair? My grief and my trouble! Would he and I were, In the province of Leinster, Or County of Clare! Were I and my darling— O heart-bitter wound!— On board of the ship For America bound. On a green bed of rushes All last night I lay, And I flung it abroad With the heat of the day. And my Love came behind me, He came from the South; His breast to my bosom, His mouth to my mouth.

Explore with AITake your curiosity a little further.

Reading settings