William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920.

Inland

PEOPLE that build their houses inland,

People that buy a plot of ground

Shaped like a house and build a house there,

Far from the seaboard, far from the sound

Of water sucking the hollow ledges,

Tons of water striking the shore,

What do they long for, as I long for

One salt smell of the sea once more?

People the waves have not awakened,

Spanking the boats at the barber’s head:,

What do they long for, as I long for—

Starting up in my inland bed,

Beating the narrow walls and finding

Neither a window nor a door,

Screaming to God for death by drowning!—

One salt taste of the sea once more?

Ainslee’s Magazine