| Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Little Book of Modern Verse. 1917. |
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| 33. The Sea-Lands |
| | | By Orrick Johns |
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| WOULD I were on the sea-lands, | |
| Where winds know how to sting; | |
| And in the rocks at midnight | |
| The lost long murmurs sing. | |
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| Would I were with my first love | 5 |
| To hear the rush and roar | |
| Of spume below the doorstep | |
| And winds upon the door. | |
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| My first love was a fair girl | |
| With ways forever new; | 10 |
| And hair a sunlight yellow, | |
| And eyes a morning blue. | |
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| The roses, have they tarried | |
| Or are they dun and frayed? | |
| If we had stayed together, | 15 |
| Would love, indeed, have stayed? | |
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| Ah, years are filled with learning, | |
| And days are leaves of change! | |
| And I have met so many | |
| I knew … and found them strange. | 20 |
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| But on the sea-lands tumbled | |
| By winds that sting and blind, | |
| The nights we watched, so silent, | |
| Come back, come back to mind. | |
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| I mind about my first love, | 25 |
| And hear the rush and roar | |
| Of spume below the doorstep | |
| And winds upon the door. | |
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