The Departure (Sargent)
Again thy winds are pealing in mine ear!
Again thy waves are flashing in my sight!
Thy memory-haunting tones again I hear,
As, through the spray, our vessel wings her flight!
On thy cerulean breast, now swelling high,
Again, thou broad Atlantic, am I cast!
Six years, with noiseless tread, have glided by,
Since the unsounded deep I traversed last.
The sea-birds o'er me wheel, as if to greet
An old companion; on my naked brow,
The sparkling foam-drops not unkindly beat;
Flows through my hair the fresh'ning breeze---and now
Th' horizon's ring enclasps me; and I stand,
Gazing where fades from view, cloud-like, my father-land!