Seal Lullaby by Rudyard Kipling

 Seal Lullaby
by Rudyard Kipling

Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind
us,
And black are the waters that sparkled so
green.
The moon, o'er the combers, looks down-
ward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between.
Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy
pillow;
Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy
ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark
overtake thee,
Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging
seas.

 

Break! Break! Break!

Break! Break! Break!

Break, Break, Break,

On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

And I would that my tongue could utter

The thoughts that arise in me.

O, well for the fisherman's boy,

That he shouts with his sister at play!

O, well for the sailor lad,

That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on,

To their haven under the hill;

But O for the touch of a vanished hand,

And the sound of a voice that it still!

Break, Break, Break,

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!

But the tender grace of a day that is dead

Will never come back to me.

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)