‘One Day I wrote her name upon the strand’ by Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (1552–1599)
ONE day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washèd it away: Again I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tide and made my pains his prey. Vain man (said she) that dost in vain assay A mortal thing so to immortalise; For I myself shall like to this decay, And eke my name be wipèd out likewise. Not so (quod I); let baser things devise To die in dust, but you shall live by fame; My verse your virtues rare shall eternise, And in the heavens write your glorious name: Where, when as Death shall all the world subdue, Our love shall live, and later life renew.
‘Ode To The Sea’ (extract) by Pablo Neruda HERE Surrounding the island There's sea. But what sea? It's always overflowing. Says yes, Then no, Then no again, And no, Says yes In blue In sea spray Raging, Says no And no again. It can't be still. It stammers My name is sea.
It slaps the rocks And when they aren't convinced, Strokes them And soaks them And smothers them with kisses. With seven green tongues Of seven green dogs Or seven green tigers Or seven green seas, Beating its chest, Stammering its name,
Oh Sea, This is your name. Oh comrade ocean, Don't waste time Or water Getting so upset Help us instead. We are meager fishermen, Men from the shore Who are hungry and cold And you're our foe. Don't beat so hard, Don't shout so loud, Open your green coffers, Place gifts of silver in our hands. Give us this day our daily fish.
‘Dover Beach’ by Matthew Arnold The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.