“I will go back to the great sweet mother,— / Mother and lover of men, the Sea”

[larryhammer]

For Poetry Monday, Millay again:

Inland, Edna St. Vincent Millay

People that build their houses inland,
    People that buy a plot of ground
Shaped like a house, and build a house there,
    Far from the sea-board, far from the sound

Of water sucking the hollow ledges,
    Tons of water striking the shore,—
What do they long for, as I long for
    One salt smell of the sea once more?

People the waves have not awakened,
    Spanking the boats at the harbor’s head,
What do they long for, as I long for,—
    Starting up in my inland bed,

Beating the narrow walls, and finding
    Neither a window nor a door,
Screaming to God for death by drowning,—
    One salt taste of the sea once more?


---L.

Subject quote from The Triumph of Time, Algernon Charles Swinburne, who continues, “I will go down to her, I and none other, / Close with her, kiss her and mix her with me; / Cling to her, strive with her, hold her fast”

Comments

[cmcmck]

I've never wanted to live next to the sea as the gulls would drive me nuts.

We live as far as it's possible to be from the sea in the UK (although in the islands that's never actually all that far). The nearest sea coast is in Wales about 70 miles from us

[larryhammer]

*points at icon*

[asakiyume]

Excellent.
Thank you.

[larryhammer]

de nada!

[sunlit_stone]

This is one of my favourites. "Screaming to God for death by drowning,--/One salt taste of the sea once more!" I live far from the sea (though in the middle of a river), but I've always loved it.

[larryhammer]

Millay wrote several very good sea-longings poems.