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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SEA-LOVE (PUGET SOUND INDIAN) by ANNICE CALLAND

First Line: HARKEN! THE DRUM-BEAT OF THE SEA
Last Line: O DRUM-BEAT OF THE SEA!
Subject(s): NATIVE AMERICANS; PUGET SOUND; INDIANS OF AMERICA; AMERICAN INDIANS; INDIANS OF SOUTH AMERICA;

Harken! The Drum-beat of the Sea,
Sea-Song and Love-Song
The Sea-Lover is singing:
My Love is beautiful
As sea flowers are beautiful;
As sea shells are beautiful;
As the moon on the Sea is beautiful;
As the Being is beautiful
My Love is beautiful,
Leda with the swift feet,
Leda, daughter of Ba-tiel.

I come as the Sea comes
Surging against the shore,
Resounding through the hills
And the hills sounding back;
Great winds bear me in
To my Love with the swift feet,
My love with the two high breasts,
I watched as a child playing
Where the brook meets the neap tide;
Little daughter of Ba-tiel
Molding images of birds, beasts and fishes.
Long have I waited;
Now I come thundering
Down the white beaches,
Surging in from the Sea,
Flowing in from the Sea
To my Love, a Rainbow
Mist about me.

I am the son of The-Old-Man-Of-The-Sea.
I am the son of my mother, Storm-Dancer.
My Love with the swift feet
Bid farewell to thy mother, Flower-Of-The-Forest;
Bid farewell to thy father, Ba-tiel.
Look on me here, me your own
As I look on you, my own;
We two shall disappear into the Sea
And never again
Appear on land.
Harken! the Drum-beat of the Sea,
Sea-Song and Love-Song,
The Sea-Lover is singing:
My Love is a Rainbow.
My love is the Dawn.
O Sea-Song! O Love-Song!
O Drum-beat of the Sea!



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