Sea and Shore ~ Poem by Henry van Dyke

Music, I yield to thee;

        As swimmer to the sea

     I give my Spirit to the flood of song:

        Bear me upon thy breast

        In rapture and at rest,

     Bathe me in pure delight and make me strong;

        From strife and struggle bring release,

     And draw the waves of passion into tides of peace.

        Remember’d songs, most dear,

        In living songs I hear,

     While blending voices gently swing and sway

        In melodies of love,

        Whose mighty currents move,

     With singing near and singing far away;

        Sweet in the glow of morning light,

     And sweeter still across the starlit gulf of night.

        Music, in thee we float,

        And lose the lonely note

     Of self in thy celestial-ordered strain,

        Until at last we find

        The life to love resigned

     In harmony of joy restored again;

        And songs that cheered our mortal days

     Break on the coast of light in endless hymns of praise.