Read "When" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I dwell in the western inland, / Afar from the sounding sea, / But I seem to hear it sobbing / And calling aloud to me, / And my heart cries out for the ocean / As a child for its mother's breast, / And I long to lie on its waters / And be lulled in its arms to rest.
I can close my eyes and fancy / That I hear its mighty roar, / And I see its blue waves splashing / And plunging against the shore; / And the white foam caps the billow, / And the sea-gulls wheel and cry, / And the cool wild wind is blowing / And the ships go sailing by.
Oh, wonderful, mighty ocean! / When shall I ever stand, / Where my heart has gone already, / There on thy gleaming strand I
When shall I ever wander / Away from this inland west, / And stand by thy side, dear ocean, / And rock on thy heaving breast?