Poem by Lucy Maud Montgomery

The Sea Spirit

I smile o’er the wrinkled blue­
Lo! the sea is fair,
Smooth as the flow of a maiden’s hair;
And the welkin’s light shines through
Into mid-sea caverns of beryl hue,
And the little waves laugh and the mermaids sing,
And the sea is a beautiful, sinuous thing! 

I scowl in sullen guise­
The sea grows dark and dun,
The swift clouds hide the sun
But not the bale-light in my eyes,
And the frightened wind as it flies
Ruffles the billows with stormy wing,
And the sea is a terrible, treacherous thing! 

When moonlight glimmers dim 
I pass in the path of the mist, 
Like a pale spirit by spirits kissed. 
At dawn I chant my own weird hymn, 
And I dabble my hair in the sunset’s rim, 
And I call to the dwellers along the shore 
With a voice of gramarye evermore. 

And if one for love of me 
Gives to my call an ear, 
I will woo him and hold him dear, 
And teach him the way of the sea, 
And my glamor shall ever over him be; 
Though he wander afar in the cities of men 
He will come at last to my arms again.

1. Companioned
2. The Seeker
3. Memory Pictures
4. In an Old Town Garden
5. In the Days of the Golden Rod

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