Explore "By the Sea" by William Dean Howells on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I walked with her I love by the sea, / The deep came up with its chanting waves, / Making a music so great and free / That the will and the faith, which were dead in me, / Awoke and rose from their graves.
Chanting, and with a regal sweep / Of their 'broidered garments up and down / The strand, came the mighty waves of the deep, / Dragging the wave-worn drift from its sleep / Along the sea-sands bare and brown.
"O my soul, make the song of the sea! " I cried. / "How it comes, with its stately tread, / And its dreadful voice, and the splendid pride / Of its regal garments flowing wide / Over the land! " to my soul I said.
My soul was still; the deep went down. / "What hast thou, my soul," I cried, / "In thy song? " "The sea-sands bare and brown, / With broken shells and sea-weed strown, / And stranded drift," my soul replied.