A Life on the Ocean Wave
A Life on the Ocean Wave
Original Text
Epes Sargent, Songs of the Sea, with Other Poems
(Boston: James Monroe, 1847): 50-51. Internet Archive
1A life on the ocean wave,
2 A home on the rolling deep;
3Where the scattered waters rave,
4 And the winds their revels keep!
5Like an eagle caged, I pine
6 On this dull, unchanging shore:
7O! give me the flashing brine.
8 The spray and the tempest's roar!
9Once more on the deck I stand,
10 Of my own swift-gliding craft:
11Set sail! farewell to the land!
12 The gale follows fair abaft.
13We shoot through the sparkling foam
14 Like an ocean-bird set free; --
15Like the ocean-bird, our home
16 We'll find far out on the sea.
17The land is no longer in view,
18 The clouds have begun to frown;
19But with a stout vessel and crew,
20 We'll say, Let the storm come down!
21And the song of our hearts shall be,
22 While the winds and the waters rave,
23A home on the rolling sea!
24 A life on the ocean wave!
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire / Sharine Leung
RPO Edition
2012
Rhyme
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