The Forsaken Mistress
The Sea, my mistress, called to me out of the night,
When the streets of the town were hard and the lips of the tide were white,
And life was weary of waiting and dreams were as driven spray:
I rose and went to her arms before the lift of day.
Queen Sea, how fare your lovers?- Hood and Nelson and Drake;
Olaf and Cook and Hudson; Colombo, Rodney and Blake;
And Conrad who knew you fair and false? What is one lover more
To the love that counts its cheated dead ten thousand score!
The Sea, my mistress, called to me out of the night,
When the streets of the town were friendly and the windows all alight,
And life was glad of waiting, and fear and doubt were gone:
But I went to the arms of a kinder love before the lift of dawn!
