Alfred Noyes

A Song of Two Burdens

The round brown sails were reefed and struggling home
  Over the glitter and gloom of the angry deep:
Dark in the cottage she sang, "Soon, soon, he will come,
  Dreamikin, Drowsy-head, sleep, my little one, sleep."

Over the glitter and gloom of the angry deep
  Was it only a dream or a shadow that vanished away?
"Lullaby, little one, sleep, my little one, sleep."
  She sang in a dream as the shadows covered the day.

Was it only a sail or a shadow that vanished away?
  The boats come home: there is one that will never return;
But she sang in a dream as the shadows buried the day;
  And she set the supper and begged the fire to burn.

The boats come home; but one will never return;
  And a strangled cry went up from the struggling sea.
She sank on her knees and begged the fire to burn,
  "Burn, oh burn, for my love is coming to me!"

A strangled cry went up from the struggling sea,
  A cry where the ghastly surf to the moon-dawn rolled;
"Burn, oh burn; for my love is coming to me,
  His hands will be scarred with the ropes and starved with the cold."

A strangled cry where the foam in the moonlight rolled,
  A bitter cry from the heart of the ghastly sea;
"His hands will be frozen, the night is dark and cold,
  Burn, oh burn, for my love is coming to me."

One cry to God from the soul of the shuddering sea,
  One moment of stifling lips and struggling hands;
"Burn, oh burn; for my love is coming to me;
  And oh, I think the little one understands."

One moment of stifling lips and struggling hands,
  Then only the glitter and gloom of the angry deep;
"And oh, I think the little one understands;
  Dreamikin, Drowsy-head, sleep, my little one, sleep."