The Sands of Dee
The Sands of Dee
Original Text
Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke (1849).
1"O Mary, go and call the cattle home,
2 And call the cattle home,
3 And call the cattle home
4 Across the sands of Dee";
5The western wind was wild and dank with foam,
6 And all alone went she.
7The western tide crept up along the sand,
8 And o'er and o'er the sand,
9 And round and round the sand,
10 As far as eye could see.
11The rolling mist came down and hid the land:
12 And never home came she.
13"Oh! is it weed, or fish, or floating hair--
14 A tress of golden hair,
15 A drownèd maiden's hair
16 Above the nets at sea?
17Was never salmon yet that shone so fair
18 Among the stakes on Dee."
19They rowed her in across the rolling foam,
20 The cruel crawling foam,
21 The cruel hungry foam,
22 To her grave beside the sea:
23But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home
24 Across the sands of Dee.
Publication Start Year
1848
RPO poem Editors
J. D. Robins
RPO Edition
2RP.2.486; RPO 1996-2000.
Rhyme