Josephine Preston Peabody

The Wind's East

    The Wind's east,--Oh, Oh!
    Only a little while ago,
    To-day was just like yesterday.
      But now--now, only Now
    The world's all turned some silver way;--
            I know how,
            I know how!

            The Wind's east,
            The Wind's east!--
    Salt, salt Wind that I love so.
    All the things in the garden blow
    Wavy gray;--and the Trees all know,--
    Trees that never, never can go,
      Must know how it would feel to be
    There, where the Ships sail to and fro,
      Ships on the blue, blue Sea!
    And the homesick ones by the bridge up here
    Are tugging to get their anchors clear,
      And they reach up high, to see.

    They catch their breath when they feel the air,
    And the rigging stirs, and the lanterns stare;
    For they know the tide is high out there,
    The gulls go skirling by, out there,--
      The gulls and the Wind go free.
    And they tug, and they pull, and they wonder so
    When will the Captain let them go?--
            Oh, Oh,--to Sea,
            To Sea!