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BY THE SEA.
33

By the Sea.

On the cold, gray shore I walk alone
Where the curling waves o’er the wet sands creep,
And my heart responds to the sea’s sad moan
As all in vain for my love I weep.
O my dear, dead love! my only love,
O love that I loved so fond and true,
Do you ever look down from your home above,
Or think of the heart that is aching for you?

I remember well when you sailed away,
We stood on the shore in the wind and rain,
And you said you’d come back to me, dear, some day,
But ah! you will never come hack again,
For under the cold, dark waves you sleep.
Oh love, dear love, my heart is sore,
And my eyes grow dim with the tears I weep
For my dear, dead love, who will come no more.

With arms outstretched to the moaning sea
I cry aloud in my dreary pain:
“Bring back the love that you stole from me,
Oh! bring me my dear, lost love, again,”
But the cold waves break on the grey sea shore
And a sorrowful dirge they sing to me,
“You may weep and sigh till time is no more,
But we’ll never bring back thy love to thee.”

And the dreary days drag wearily by,
And I mourn and weep for the joys long past,
On leaden wings the moments fly,
But the end must surely come at last.
O my dear, dead love, we will meet again
On the golden shores of Eternity,
And my weary waiting will not be vain
When the sea gives back what it stole from me.