FIRST SONG.
LET me die by the sea!
When his billows are haughty and high,
And the storm-wind's abroad,--
When his dark passion grasps at the sky
With the power of a god,--
When all his fierce forces are free--
Let me die by the sea.
Let me die by the sea!
To his rhythms of tempest and rain,
I would pass from the earth,
Through death that is travail and pain,
Through death that is birth;
'Mid the thunders of waves and of lea,
Let me die by the sea.
Let me die by the sea!
When the great deeps are sundered and stirred,
And the night cometh fast,
Let my spirit mount up like a bird,
On the wings of the blast.
O'er the tumults of wave and of lea,
O'er their ravage and roar,
She would soar, she would soar,
Where peace waits her at last:
Oh! Fate, let me die by the sea.
SECOND SONG.
Ah, no! Ah, no! I would not go
While earth and heaven are black:--
When all is wildly drear and dark,
Guard, guard, O God! this vital spark!
But I would go when winds are low,
And distant, dreamy rills
Are heard to lapse with lingering flow,
Between the twilight hills:
With earth, and wave, and heaven at peace,
Then let these outworn pulses cease.
