The Sailor Boy

The Sailor Boy

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

He rose at dawn and fired with hope,

    Shot o’er the seething harbor-bar,

And reach’d the ship and caught the rope,

    And whistled to the morning star.

And while he whistled long and loud 

    He heard a fierce mermaiden cry,

‘O boy, tho’ thou are young and proud,

    I see the place where thou wilt lie.

‘The sands and yeasty surges mix

    In cave s about the dreary bay,

And on thy ribs the limpet sticks,

    And in thy heart the scrawl shall play.’

‘Fool,’ he answer’d , ‘death is sure

    To those that stay and those that roam,

But I will nevermore endure  

    To sit with empty hands at home.

‘My mother clings about my neck,

    My sisters crying,  :”Stay for shame;”

My father raves of death and wreck,- 

    They are all to blame, they are all to blame.

‘God help me! save I take my part 

    Of danger on the roaring sea,

A devil rises in my heart,

    Far worse than any death to me.’