Hymn to the Sea

Far away
Beneath the starry sky
Your gentle waters moan

Far away
With a wrenching cry
You claim again your own

For what comes
From the waters
Will fall again—
Thus return.

What rises
From the darken’d depths
Will yet sink and
Quench its burn.

For from dust to dust,
That is how we come,
And from wave to wave
We gently go.

Sailing on
Through timeless waters
We only know

That far away
Beneath the starry sky
Your gentle waters moan

Far away
With a wrenching cry
You claim again your own.

This our hymn
To the shining sea,
The darken’d waters cold.
This our song
To the crashing waves,
Those grasped in Neptune’s hold.

Sing on through those
Icy depths,
Remember whence you came.

Trim your lines and scrub
Your decks—
You’ll sink there yet again.

Just accept, and find your way
Through fiercer waters bold.
Time again may slip away
Before the sea claims back its own.