O I am never lonely if I can smell the sea, Or hear the lyric thunder Of the surf on rocks or sand, Or watch the pale green water as it rises and turns under In a breaving wave white-tipped and beautiful; While the wind drives some fleet ship Straight against the cobalt sky Till its white sails rise and dip Like a gull. But I am ever lonely in a city's crowded street, Where the tide of life is beating In the heat or in the cold, And the waves are men and women, stern-faced that give no greeting, Ever moving like a stream that none can stay; While the sky that covers all, That great sea that surges on Between buildings great and small, Is smoke gray. O I am never lonely if I am near the sea, At morning, or at noontime, Or at slipping of the day, Or in the heavy darkness that gives way before full moontime When waves are still and wings and sails are gone, Or in the deep of night When a chill wind shakes the stars Till they lose their yellow light In the dawn. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BUTCHER SHOP by DAVID IGNATOW SPRING DAY: NIGHT AND SLEEP by AMY LOWELL THE RAINY SEASON by CLARENCE MAJOR SLEEPING TOGETHER by KATHERINE MANSFIELD A MAN CHILD IS BORN (1809) by EDGAR LEE MASTERS DOMESDAY BOOK: ARCHIBALD LOWELL by EDGAR LEE MASTERS RECESSIONAL by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |