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THE MUSIC OF THE SEA
I love to hear the music of the sea,
As, playing on the everlasting shore,
Its strange, profound, and mystic melody,
It chants the soul of man for evermore.
It sings of wreckful passion when it beats
With unrestrained wildness on the rocks;
Then with succeeding sorrow it retreats,
Sobbing o’er pain of self-inflicted shocks.
Of martyrdom and silent pain it speaks
When, dumbly moaning, languidly it rolls;
And weirdly wails, as on the rocks it breaks,
The deadness and despair of human souls.
Its scintillations on the pebbly beach,
Mingling with sunshine and the playful breeze,
Are bubbling merriment and mirth that reach
No deeper than the sensuous vision sees.
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