1. Hail to the Sea!

T HALATTA ! Thalatta!
Oh, let me hail thee, eternal sea!
Oh, let me hail thee ten thousand times
From spirit exulting,
As once thou wast hailed by
Ten thousand hearts of Hellas
Struggling with misery, yearning for home delights,
World-renowned hearts of Hellas.
The billows were heaving,
Were heaving and roaring;
And freely the sun poured upon them
Its radiance of rose and of opal;
Startled, the flocks of sea swallows
Fluttered afar, loud-screaming;

12. Peace.
High in Heaven the sun was standing,
The white clouds billowy around him.
The sea was calm,
And musing I lay at the stern of our vessel,
Musing and dreaming, and half in waking
And half in sleep, I gazed on Christus,
Redeemer of Man!
In snowy flowing garments,
Giant-like strode he afar
Over land and sea.
His head reached up to the welkin;
His hands were stretched in blessing,
And as his heart did he bear
The sun itself in his bosom,
The sun ablaze and encrimsoned,

11. Purification.
But thou stay deep in ocean,
Thou crazy dream,
Which with false bliss through many a night
Didst torture in old time my heart,
And like a sea-spectre now
Threaten'st me even in brilliant noontide,
Remain thou deep-sunken for evermore!
Yet more will I hurl to thee into the deep —
All my transgressions and sorrows,
And the cap and bells of my folly
Which so long round my head have jingled,
And hypocrisy's serpent skin,
Slimy and chill,
Which so long hath twisted about my spirit,

10. A Sea-Ghost.
But I lay on the side of the vessel,
And was gazing — with half-dreaming eyeballs —
Down into the mirror-like water;
And kept gazing deeper and deeper —
Till far in the depths of the Ocean,
At first like a darkening fog-mist,
But slowly, with colours distincter,
Domes of churches and towers took substance,
And at last, sunny-bright, a whole city
An old-world, Netherlands-city,
Crowded with people —

Sober-eyed men, clothed in black mantles,

9. A Calm at Sea.
Deep-sea silence! All the glitter
Of the sun lies on the water,
And the ship ploughs green-blue furrows
Through the jewelled, heaving billows.

Near the rudder lies the boatswain,
Snoring lightly on his belly.
Near the mainmast, patching sailcloth,
Cowers the cabin-boy, bewildered.

Underneath his cheeks so grimy
Red blood sparkles; apprehension
Twitches his wide mouth, and misery
From his great dark eyes looks mutely.

For the captain stands above him,

8. Storm.
How rages the storm!
How he scourges the deep!
And, foaming with rage, it raves and the waves
Pile themselves up, and the white water-mountains
Heave as with life!

And the good ship climbs up them,
Straining and toiling,
Then plunges down madly
In the dark gaping chasm of billows.

O Sea!
Mother of Beauty, the foam-sprung goddess,
Grandam of Love, have pity on me!
For the white spectral sea-mew flutters
With a wail as of spirits departed,

7. At Night in the Cabin.
The sea hath its pearls,
The Heaven hath its stars;
And my heart, my heart,
My heart hath its love.

Great are the sea, and the Heaven,
But greater still my heart;
And fairer than pearls or than starlight
Is the radiance of my love.

O little girl, my darling,
Come thou to my great heart;
My heart, and the sea, and the Heaven
Are fainting, are dying for love.

*****

On the azure vault of Heaven,
Where the lovely stars are twinkling;

6. Declaration.
The evening came stealing in twilight,
Wilder sounded the flood;
On the shore I sat and gazed
At the snow-white dance of waters;
And then my breast heaved big like the sea,
And yearning desire for home o'ercame me,
For thee, thou loveliest,
Who everywhere hoverest near,
Who everywhere call'st on me,
Everywhere, everywhere,
In sounding of wind, in resounding of sea,
And in sobbings which breathe from my heart.

With a slender reed I wrote on the sand:
" Agnes, I love thee! "

5. Poseidon.
The sun's bright rays were playing
Over the far-away rolling sea;
Far in the roadway sparkled the ship
Which soon should bear me homeward swiftly;
But we were waiting for favouring breezes,
And I sat unmoved on the gleaming sand-hills,
Alone on the beach.
And I read the song of Odysseus,
The ancient story that is ever young;
Forth from whose sea-resounding pages
Gleefully came to meet me
The breath of Immortals,
And the light of Humanity's spring-time,

4. Night on the Shore.
Starless and cold is the night,
Wide yawns the sea;
And over the sea, stretched flat on his belly,
Lies the uncouth North-wind;
And in secret, with sobbing voice, under his breath,
Like a peevish old grumbler, an old acquaintance,
He prattles away to the water,
And tells it many wild stories —
Stories of giants, with resonant death-blows,
Ages-old sagas of Norway —
And between them wide-sounding he laughs, and he howls out
Conjuration songs of the Edda,
Runic sentences, too,