| Who hath desired the Sea? - the sight of salt water unbounded - |
| The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the |
| comber wind-hounded? |
| The sleek-barrelled swell before storm, grey, foamless, |
| enormous, and growing - |
| Stark calm on the lap of the Line or the crazy-eyed hurricane blowing - |
| His Sea in no showing the same - his Sea and the same |
| 'neath each showing: |
| His Sea as she slackens or thrills? |
| So and no otherwise - so and no otherwise - hillmen desire their Hills! |
| |
| Who hath desired the Sea? - the immense and contemptuous surges? |
| The shudder, the stumble, the swerve, as the star-stabbing |
| bowsprit emerges? |
| The orderly clouds of the Trades, the ridged, roaring |
| sapphire thereunder - |
| Unheralded cliff-haunting flaws and the headsail’s lowvolleying thunder - |
| His Sea in no wonder the same - his Sea and the same |
| through each wonder: |
| His Sea as she rages or stills? |
| So and no otherwise - so and no otherwise - hillmen desire their Hills. |
| |
| Who hath desired the Sea? Her menaces swift as her mercies? |
| The in-rolling walls of the fog and the silver-winged breeze |
| that disperses? |
| The unstable mined berg going South and the calvings and |
| groans that declare it - |
| White water half-guessed overside and the moon breaking |
| timely to bare it - |
| His Sea as his fathers have dared - his Sea as his children shall dare it: |
| His Sea as she serves him or kills? |
| So and no otherwise - so and no otherwise - hillmen desire their Hills. |
| |
| Who hath desired the Sea? Her excellent loneliness rather |
| Than forecourts of kings, and her outermost pits than the |
| streets where men gather |
|
| may slay him - |
| Inland, out of reach of her arms, and the bosom whereon |
| he must lay him - |
|
|
| His Sea that his being fulfils? |
| So and no otherwise - so and no otherwise - hillmen desire their Hills. |