When You Are On The Sea

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Title:     When You Are On The Sea
Author: Dora Sigerson Shorter [More Titles by Shorter]

How can I laugh or dance as others do,
Or ply my rock or reel?
My heart will still return to dreams of you
Beside my spinning-wheel.

My little dog he cried out in the dark,
He would not whisht for me:
I took him to my side--why did he bark
When you were on the sea?

I fear the red cock--if he crow to-night--
I keep him close and warm,
'Twere ill with me, if he should wake in fright
And you out in the storm.

I dare not smile for fear my laugh would ring
Across your dying ears;
O, if you, drifting, drowned, should hear me sing
And think I had not tears.

I never thought the sea could wake such waves,
Nor that such winds could be;
I never wept when other eyes grew blind
For some one on the sea.

But now I fear and pray all things for you,
How many dangers be!
I set my wheel aside, what can I do
When you are on the sea?

[The end]
Dora Sigerson Shorter's poem: When You Are On The Sea

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