“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”