To a Seamew

When I had wings, my brother,     Such wings were mine as thine:     Such life my heart remembers     In all as wild Septembers     As this when life seems other,     Though sweet, than once was mine;     When I had wings, my brother,     Such wings were mine as thine.     Such life as thrills and quickens     The silence of thy flight,     Or fills thy note's elation     With lordlier exultation     Than man's, whose faint heart sickens     With hopes and fears that blight     Such life as thrills and quickens     The silence of thy flight.     Thy cry from windward clanging     Makes all the cliffs rejoice;     Though storm clothe seas with sorrow,     Thy call salutes the morrow;     While shades of pain seem hanging     Round earth's most rapturous voice,     Thy cry from windward clanging     Makes all the cliffs rejoice.     We, sons and sires of seamen,     Whose home is all the sea,     What place man may, we claim it;     But thinewhose thought may name it?     Free birds live higher than freemen,     And gladlier ye than we     We, sons and sires of seamen,     Whose home is all the sea.     For you the storm sounds only     More notes of more delight     Than earth's in sunniest weather:     When heaven and sea together     Join strengths against the lonely     Lost bark borne down by night,     For you the storm sounds only     More notes of more delight.     With wider wing, and louder     Long clarion-call of joy,     Thy tribe salutes the terror     Of darkness, wild as error,     But sure as truth, and prouder     Than waves with man for toy;     With wider wing, and louder     Long clarion-call of joy.     The wave's wing spreads and flutters,     The wave's heart swells and breaks;     One moment's passion thrills it,     One pulse of power fulfils it     And ends the pride it utters     When, loud with life that quakes,     The wave's wing spreads and flutters,     The wave's heart swells and breaks.     But thine and thou, my brother,     Keep heart and wing more high     Than aught may scare or sunder;     The waves whose throats are thunder     Fall hurtling each on other,     And triumph as they die;     But thine and thou, my brother,     Keep heart and wing more high.     More high than wrath or anguish,     More strong than pride or fear,     The sense or soul half hidden     In thee, for us forbidden,     Bids thee nor change nor languish,     But live thy life as here,     More high than wrath or anguish,     More strong than pride or fear.     We are fallen, even we, whose passion     On earth is nearest thine;     Who sing, and cease from flying;     Who live, and dream of dying:     Grey time, in time's grey fashion,     Bids wingless creatures pine:     We are fallen, even we, whose passion     On earth is nearest thine.     The lark knows no such rapture,     Such joy no nightingale,     As sways the songless measure     Wherein thy wings take pleasure:     Thy love may no man capture,     Thy pride may no man quail;     The lark knows no such rapture,     Such joy no nightingale.     And we, whom dreams embolden,     We can but creep and sing     And watch through heaven's waste hollow     The flight no sight may follow     To the utter bourne beholden     Of none that lack thy wing:     And we, whom dreams embolden,     We can but creep and sing.     Our dreams have wings that falter,     Our hearts bear hopes that die;     For thee no dream could better     A life no fears may fetter,     A pride no care can alter,     That wots not whence or why     Our dreams have wings that falter,     Our hearts bear hopes that die.     With joy more fierce and sweeter     Than joys we deem divine     Their lives, by time untarnished,     Are girt about and garnished,     Who match the wave's full metre     And drink the wind's wild wine     With joy more fierce and sweeter     Than joys we deem divine.     Ah, well were I for ever,     Wouldst thou change lives with me,     And take my song's wild honey,     And give me back thy sunny     Wide eyes that weary never,     And wings that search the sea;     Ah, well were I for ever,     Wouldst thou change lives with me.