From the Lips of the Sea   By: Clinton Scollard (1860-1932)

FROM THE LIPS OF THE SEA

CLINTON SCOLLARD

CONTENTS

SEA MARVELS THE MIST AND THE SEA DIRGE FOR A SAILOR BAG PIPES AT SEA THE WIND AND THE SEA THE TIDES A SEA ROVER THE MIST BARQUE A SEA SHELL NIGHT SONG BY THE SEA WILD GEESE A SEA CHANGE SAINT SEPULCHRE'S BESIDE THE SEA SEA LYRICS DAWN, THE HARVESTER THE LILAC SEA A SAILOR AMID THE HILLS SUMMER BY THE SEA DUSK AT SEA THE SPEECH OF THE SEA NIGHT BY THE SEA AUTUMN BY THE SEA MIST AT SEA A SEA SCENE MOONRISE BY THE SEA A SEA SONG A SYMPHONY OF THE SEA

If thou wouldst win the rhythmic heart of things, Go sit in solitude beside the shore, Giving thine ear to the eternal roar And every mystic message that it brings; Eddas of ancient, unremembered kings, And runes that ring with long forgotten lore, All myths and mysteries from the years of yore Ere Time grew weary on his journeyings.

And more from that imperious sibyl, Sea, Thou mayest learn if thou wilt hearken well, When God's white star fires beacon home the ships; The solemn secrets of infinity, Unto the inner sense translatable, Hang trembling ever on her darkling lips.

SEA MARVELS

This morning more mysterious seems the sea Than yesterday when, with reverberant roar, It charged upon the beaches, and the sky Above it shimmered cloudless. Now the waves Lap languorously along the foamless sand, And till the far horizon swims in mist. Out of this murk, across this oily sweep, Might lost armadas grandly sail to shore; Jason might oar on Argo, or the stern Surge wanderer from Ithaca's bleak isle Break on the sight, or Viking prows appear, And still not waken wonder. Aye, the sound Of siren singing might drift o'er the main, And yet not fall upon amazèd ears! The soul is ripe for marvels. O great deep, Give up your host of stately presences, Adventurers and sea heroes of old time, And let them pass before us down the day In proud procession, so that we who hear Dull bells mark off the uneventful hours May glimpse the bygone bravery of the world Now moiling in its multitudinous marts, Forgetful of fair faith and high resolve In the inglorious grapple after gold!

THE MIST AND THE SEA

The mist crept in from the sea Out of the void and the vast; And it bore the silver rain A shimmering guest in its train, And many a murmuring strain Of the ships that sailed in the past; Soft as sleep's footfalls be The mist crept in from the sea.

The mist crept in from the sea And folded the length of the shore In the clasp of its mothering arms As though it would shield from harms; And lulled were the loud alarms, And lost was the rage and roar Of the surge, so soothingly The mist crept in from the sea.

The mist crept in from the sea, White, impalpable, strange; Pull of the wafture of wings, Of eerie and eldritch things, Of visions and vanishings Ever in shift and change; Silently, hauntingly, The mist crept in from the sea.

The mist crept in from the sea, And bode for a space, and then It heard the imperious call Of the deep, transcending all, And it knew itself as the thrall Of the world old master of men, So, still as the dreams that flee, The mist crept back to the sea.

DIRGE FOR A SAILOR

Beyond the bourns of time and sleep, Beyond the sway of tides, A voyager o'er death's darksome deep, His ship at anchor rides.

He who from boyhood never knew A garden save the foam, Whose only rooftree was the blue, At last has found a home.

And what more fit than that the wave He loved through life to stem Should sing above his green sea grave This sailor's requiem!

BAG PIPES AT SEA

Above the shouting of the gale, The whipping sheet, the dashing spray, I heard, with notes of joy and wail, A piper play.