MORGISH LAMENT

 

                        I walked on the sand

At the end of the land

And gazed at the booming sea.

I came to a halt

When the sea brume salt

Seemed to bring to me

An ancient song

From the land I long

Had sought unceasingly.

A Morgish tongue

Sighed and sung

To the tune of the crashing sea:

 

"Come back to home,

You kin who roam

Afar in ships

Upon the foam.

 

"Come back we call

To empty hall

For absent kin

Is bitter gall.

 

"Of blood to blood

And mood to mood,

We feel the call

Of Morgish brood.

 

"Great Gammoth stands

With outstretched hands

On the green hill

Of Golberand,

 

"And calls his child

Back from the wild

Paths of the deep

To havens mild.

 

"Why wander far?

Turn sail and spar

And take the trail

Of summer stars.

 

"Yes, take the track

Past wave and wrack.

Turn west to home;

It calls you back.

 

"I call to thee

Across the sea!

Ah! Hear my song

And turn to me!"

 

So it sang, then thinned, and died away

Like smoke blown on a misty day;

And the sea roared upon the shore

And the clouds in the wind were rent and tore

And I stood still on the beach alone

While the gulls wailed and the sea moaned

And the darkness came in a silent spring

And I waited more for the voice to sing,

But heard only the sound of wave on stone

As I still stood on the beach alone.