The Sea Spirit by Lucy Maud Montgomery

I smile o'er the wrinkled blue­

Lo! the sea is fair,

Smooth as the flow of a maiden's hair;

And the welkin's light shines through

Into mid-sea caverns of beryl hue,

And the little waves laugh and the mermaids sing,

And the sea is a beautiful, sinuous thing!

I scowl in sullen guise­

The sea grows dark and dun,

The swift clouds hide the sun

But not the bale-light in my eyes,

And the frightened wind as it flies

Ruffles the billows with stormy wing,

And the sea is a terrible, treacherous thing!

When moonlight glimmers dim

I pass in the path of the mist,

Like a pale spirit by spirits kissed.

At dawn I chant my own weird hymn,

And I dabble my hair in the sunset's rim,

And I call to the dwellers along the shore

With a voice of gramarye evermore.

And if one for love of me

Gives to my call an ear,

I will woo him and hold him dear,

And teach him the way of the sea,

And my glamor shall ever over him be;

Though he wander afar in the cities of men

He will come at last to my arms again.