Poems (Mansfield)/The Sea-Child
For works with similar titles, see The Sea-Child.
THE SEA CHILD
Into the world you sent her, mother, Fashioned her body of coral and foam,Combed a wave in her hair's warm smother, And drove her away from home.
In the dark of the night she crept to the town And under a doorway she laid her down,The little blue child in the foam-fringed gown.
And never a sister and never a brother To hear her call, to answer her cry.Her face shone out from her hair's warm smother Like a moonkin up in the sky.
She sold her corals; she sold her foam; Her rainbow heart like a singing shellBroke in her body: she crept back home.
Peace, go back to the world, my daughter, Daughter, go back to the darkling land;There is nothing here but sad sea water, And a handful of sifting sand.1911.