Classic Poem

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-grey 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.