Classic Poem

Wind-torn, wave-worn, still I sing delight of it,
Buffeted of breakers, I am jubilant and free!
Storm-trod, nearer God, flung into the fright of it,
Battered to the teeth by the sea!

Rail-wrenched, sail-drenched, swung along the swell of it,
Lifted to the level of the rime-stung stars!
Deck-chopped, wreck-dropped, down into the hell of it
Under the thunder of the bars!

O I love the lulls of it and the happy gulls of it
When the water-width is one slow lapis-lazuli,
But the magic weave of it dances in the heave of it —
Give me the lunging sea!

Wind-torn, wave-worn, out into the shriek of it,
Shipping dizzy green to the crow o' the mast!
Gale-battered, sail-shattered, full against the beak of it —
Give me the sea to the last!