Songs of the Sea Children

by Bliss Carman

 

LXXXII

 
What is this House at the End of the World,
Where the sun leaves off and the snow begins,
And the drift of the grey sea spins?

O this is the house where I was born, 
At the world's far edge one April day,
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Within sound of the white sea spray.

The place is lone, where the hills recede,
And the sea slopes over the world's far side,
And nothing moves but the tide,— 

The moaning tide and the silent sun, 
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The wind and the stars and the Northern light, 
Changing the watch by night.

And of all the travellers who questioned me, 
Why I make my home in so quiet a land, 
Not a soul could understand.
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Till the day you came with love in your eyes, 
And asked no more than the sun on the wall, 
Yet understood it all.

And my house has been filled to overflow 
With beauty and laughter and peace since then,
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And joys of the world of men.