The Sailor's Wife Speaks

Don Marquis

Ye are dead, they say, but ye swore, ye swore,
  Ye would come to me back from the sea!
From out of the sea and the night, ye cried,
Nor the crawling weed nor the dragging tide
  Could hold ye fast from me:—
  Come, ah, come to me!

Three spells I have laid on the rising sun
  And three on the waning moon—
Are ye held in the bonds of the night or the day
Ye must loosen your bonds and away, away!
  Ye must come where I wait ye, soon—
  Ah, soon! soon! soon!

Three times I have cast my words to the wind,
  And thrice to the climbing sea;
If ye drift or dream with the clouds or foam
Ye must drift again home, ye must drift again
      home—

 Wraith, ye are free, ye are free;
  Ghost, ye are free, ye are free!

Are the coasts of death so fair, so fair?
  But I wait ye here on the shore!
It is I that ye hear in the calling wind—
I have stared through the dark till my soul is blind!
  O lover of mine, ye swore,
  Lover of mine, ye swore!

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