Poems of the Sea

God works in mysterious ways
His wonders to perform
He puts his footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

---William Cowper
1731-1800

I'm on the sea! I'm on the sea!
I am where I would ever be;
With the blue above and the blue below,
And silence wheresoe'er I go

from The Sea
by Barry Cornwall

There's a magic in the distance, where the sea-line meets the sky.

from Forty Singing Seamen
by Alfred Noyes

I send thee a shell from the ocean-beach;
But listen thou well, for my shell hath speech.

from With a Nantucket Shell
by Charles H. Webb

The Sea Gypsy
by Richard Hovey

Some love to roam o'er the dark sea's foam,
Where the shrill winds whistle free.

from Some Love to Roam
by Charles Mackay

   To me the sea is a continual miracle,
   The fishes that swim--- the rocks--- the motion
            of the waves--- the ships with men in them,
   What stranger miracles are there?

from Miracles
by Walt Whitman

An everywhere of silver,
With ropes of sand
To keep it from effacing
The track called land.

from Poems
by Emily Dickenson

I wiped away the weeds and foam,
I fetched my sea-born treasures home;
But the poor, unsightly, noisome things
Had left their beauty on the shore...

from Poems, Each and All
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

My soul is full of longing
For the secret of the sea,
And the heart of the great ocean
Sends a thrilling pulse through me.

from The Secret of the Sea
by Longfellow

Upon a mountain height, far from the sea,
I found a shell,
And to my listening ear the lonely thing
Ever a song of ocean seemed to sing...

from The Wanderer
by Eugene Field

The sea never changes and its works, for all the talk of men,
are wrapped in mystery.

from Typhoon
by Joseph Conrad

Gather a shell from the strown beach
And listen at its lips: they sigh
The same desire and mystery,
The echo of the whole sea's speech.

from The Sea-Limits
by D. G. Rossetti

And the wind plays on those great sonorous harps,
the shrouds and masts of ships.

from Hyperion
by Longfellow

Sea-Fever, by John Masefield