The Open Sea
Dorothea Mackeller 1885 (Point Piper, Sydney) – 1968 (Randwick)
From my window I can see,
Where the sandhills dip,
One far glimpse of open sea.
Just a slender slip
Curving like a crescent moon—
Yet a greater prize
Than the harbour garden-fair
Spread beneath my eyes.
Just below me swings the bay,
Sings a sunny tune,
But my heart is far away
Out beyond the dune;
Clearer far the sea-gulls’ cry
And the breakers’ roar,
Than the little waves beneath
Lapping on the shore.
For that strip of sapphire sea
Set against the sky
Far horizons means to me—
And the ships go by
Framed between the empty sky
And the yellow sands,
While my freed thoughts follow them
Out to other lands.
All its changes who can tell?
I have seen it shine
Like a jewel polished well,
Hard and clear and fine;
Then soft lilac—and again
On another day
Glimpsed it through a veil of rain,
Shifting, drifting grey.
When the livid waters flee,
Flinching from the storm,
From my window I can see,
Standing safe and warm,
How the white foam tosses high
On the naked shore,
And the breakers’ thunder grows
To a battle-roar…
Far and far I look—Ten miles?
No, for yesterday
Sure I saw the Blessed Isles
Twenty worlds away.
My blue moon of open sea,
Is it little worth?
At the least it gives to me
Keys of all the earth
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 27, 2023
- 1:09 min read
- 145 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | Ababcdxd ececfgxg afaffhxh ijijxexe akAkfgxg leleamam |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,413 |
Words | 231 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
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"The Open Sea" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/8107/the-open-sea>.
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