Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IN THE CHINA SEAS by ARTHUR PETERSON

First Line: ONCE, LYING IN MY BERTH AT NIGHT
Last Line: YOU MUST I LOVE UNTIL I DIE!
Subject(s): HOME; PENNSYLVANIA;

Once, lying in my berth at night,
What time I sailed the China Seas,
There came, like thought of future ease
To him who wearies of the fight,

A dream of home. Far from the din
Of wind and wave my spirit flew.
What mattered how the typhoon blew?
I saw the city of my kin --

Its rivers twain. O native land!
O Pennsylvania meadows sweet!
O lanes where once with youthful feet
I walked or, musing, long would stand!

You must I love! Toward northern sky
The needle turns, where'er we roam;
So turns the wanderer's heart toward home:
You must I love until I die!



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