Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Another oldie!...

This Sailor's Song was written the year I studied the Sea in literature... we read everything from The Odyssey to Two Years Before the Mast to Moby Dick. I was around fourteen and loved it. A tinge of inspiration comes also from my dear Tolkien -- remember Legolas' Song of the Sea?



A Sailor’s Song

To the sea! To the sea! Fly away on the gales,
With white seagulls darting high over the sails;
I must go, for the seagulls are singing to me,
And this is their song, “To the sea, to the sea!”

To the waves! for the song of the gulls in the sky
Is a call that no sailor can ever deny;
The albatross soars through the air high above,
And I come, O ye gulls, to the sea that I love.

To your ships! They are waiting to sail on the wave,
To faraway lands, with crews gallant and brave;
They climb in the rigging, they jump to the mast,
Till back in their haven they land – home at last.

I’ll sing to Poseidon, the lord of the ocean,
Whose every whim swift sets the waters in motion;
I’ll doze in my hammock, and there I’ll lie deep
In slumber while Neptune’s waves rock me to sleep.

Come away! to the sea! to the waves, for they call,
And high on the mast I’ll have no cares at all;
For I feel that the seagulls still sing unto me
That high mirthful call, “To the sea, to the sea!”

4 comments:

__ said...

¿para cuándo una que sepamos todos? (p.a.p.)

Agnes Regina said...

Que es "P.A.P?"

Anonymous said...

Another personal classic, as I would call it. It's wonderfully detailed, and very exciting. You should try to get a children's picture book published; I can imagine it- each stanza a different page. It could easily become a classic, an elevated, sophisticated, yet fun and accessible read. The only problem I notice is the use of both the Greek and Latin names of Poseidon in stanza 4; although it adds to the variety of diction, as a rule only one of the two languages should be chosen for the ancient gods' names in a given work. Nonetheless, Miss Regina, it stirs in me my old love of things nautical; when I was very young I was an Old Ironsides fanatic.

Agnes Regina said...

Oh! Oh, I never noticed that! But hey, cut me some slack, I was only in eighth (or was it ninth) grade.
:)

Many thanks, though, and since you like these old things I'll try to post more.