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SHINE! shine! shine! | |
Pour down your warmth, great Sun! | |
While we baskwe two together. | |
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Two together! | |
Winds blow South, or winds blow North, | 5 |
Day come white, or night come black, | |
Home, or rivers and mountains from home, | |
Singing all time, minding no time, | |
While we two keep together
. | |
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Blow! blow! blow! | 10 |
Blow up, sea-winds, along Paumanoks shore! | |
I wait and I wait, till you blow my mate to me
. | |
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Soothe! soothe! soothe! | |
Close on its wave soothes the wave behind, | |
And again another behind, embracing and lapping, every one close, | 15 |
But my love soothes not me, not me. | |
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Low hangs the moonit rose late; | |
O it is laggingO I think it is heavy with love, with love. | |
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O madly the sea pushes, pushes upon the land, | |
With lovewith love. | 20 |
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O night! do I not see my love fluttering out there among the breakers? | |
What is that little black thing I see there in the white? | |
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Loud! loud! loud! | |
Loud I call to you, my love! | |
High and clear I shoot my voice over the waves; | 25 |
Surely you must know who is here, is here; | |
You must know who I am, my love. | |
|
Low-hanging moon! | |
What is that dusky spot in your brown yellow? | |
O it is the shape, the shape of my mate! | 30 |
O moon, do not keep her from me any longer. | |
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Land! land! O land! | |
Whichever way I turn, O I think you could give my mate back again, if you only would, | |
For I am almost sure I see her dimly whichever way I look. | |
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O rising stars! | 35 |
Perhaps the one I want so much will rise, will rise with some of you. | |
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O throat! O trembling throat! | |
Sound clearer through the atmosphere! | |
Pierce the woods, the earth; | |
Somewhere listening to catch you, must be the one I want. | 40 |
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Shake out, carols! | |
Solitary herethe nights carols! | |
Carols of lonesome love! Deaths carols! | |
Carols under that lagging, yellow, waning moon! | |
O, under that moon, where she droops almost down into the sea! | 45 |
O reckless, despairing carols. | |
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But soft! sink low; | |
Soft! let me just murmur; | |
And do you wait a moment, you husky-noised sea; | |
For somewhere I believe I heard my mate responding to me, | 50 |
So faintI must be still, be still to listen; | |
But not altogether still, for then she might not come immediately to me. | |
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Hither, my love! | |
Here I am! Here! | |
With this just-sustaind note I announce myself to you; | 55 |
This gentle call is for you, my love, for you. | |
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Do not be decoyd elsewhere! | |
That is the whistle of the windit is not my voice; | |
That is the fluttering, the fluttering of the spray; | |
Those are the shadows of leaves. | 60 |
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O darkness! O in vain! | |
O I am very sick and sorrowful. | |
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O brown halo in the sky, near the moon, drooping upon the sea! | |
O troubled reflection in the sea! | |
O throat! O throbbing throat! | 65 |
O alland I singing uselessly, uselessly all the night. | |
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Yet I murmur, murmur on! | |
O murmursyou yourselves make me continue to sing, I know not why. | |
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O past! O life! O songs of joy! | |
In the airin the woodsover fields; | 70 |
Loved! loved! loved! loved! loved! | |
But my love no more, no more with me! | |
We two together no more. | |
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