A Garden by the Sea by William Morris I know a little garden close,
Set thick with lily and red rose,
Where I would wander if I might,
From dewy morn to dewy night,
And have one with me,
Wandering.
And though within it no birds sing,
And though no pillared house is there,
And though the apple-bows are bare Of fruit and blossom,
Wood to God,
Her feet upon the green grass trod,
And I held them as before.
There comes a murmur from the shore,
And in the close two fair streams are,
Drawn from the purple hills afar,
Drawn down into the restless sea,
Dark hills whose heath-bloom feeds no bee,
Dark shore no ship has ever seen,
Tormented by the billows green,
Whose murmur comes unceasingly Unto the place for which I cry,
For which I cry both day and night,
For which I let slip all delight,
Whereby I grow both deaf and blind,
Careless to win,
Unskilled to find,
And quick to lose what all men seek.
Yet tottering as I am and weak,
Still have I left a little breath,
To seek within the jaws of death,
An entrance to that happy place,
To seek the unforgotten face,
Once seen,
Once kissed,
Once reft from me,
And I,
The murmuring of the sea.