{
 "id": "voltairine-de-cleyre/the-dirge-of-the-sea",
 "title": "The Dirge of the Sea",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Voltairine de Cleyre",
 "poet_slug": "voltairine-de-cleyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1891,
  "venue": "The Freethinkers’ Magazine (April 1891)",
  "note": "Not verified against the page. The chronological bibliography at the Libertarian Labyrinth gives the printing as The Freethinker’s Magazine, April 1891, and Standard Ebooks names a Google Books volume of that journal among its sources; no scan of the issue is held here, and the poem also carries an April 1891 dateline of its own, which may be the date of writing rather than of printing.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/voltairine-de-cleyre/voltairine-de-cleyre-november-17-1866-june-20-1912/"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/voltairine-de-cleyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43098",
   "https://archive.org/details/selectedworksvo01havegoog",
   "https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voltairine-de-cleyre-collected-poems",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Free_Thought_Magazine/KNOMrVNM4CgC",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Open_Court/711CAQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Open_Court/6qzQAAAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Worm_Turns/wslHAQAAMAAJ",
   "https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voltairine-de-cleyre-a-new-hope",
   "https://archive.org/details/BostonInvestigator_1893-03-15"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 128,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 8
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Come! Come! I have waited long!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My love is old,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My arms are strong;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "My heart is bold;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "I would woo thee, now,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "With the wave-kiss cold",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "On thy pallid brow;",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou art mine, thou art mine! My very own!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine ears shall hear",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My eternal moan;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Always near",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou’lt feel my lips,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And the bathing tear",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Where my sorrow drips.",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou, my king forever, behold thy throne!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reign in thy majesty, all alone.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "None! None wept for thee,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Nearing the verge",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Of eternity!",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "I, thy solemn dirge",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Will chant for aye",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Wide as the wave-merge",
    "indent": 7
   },
   {
    "text": "Into sky.",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "I love thee! Thou art my chosen own!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy heart, like mine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Was cold as stone,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine eyes could shine",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Like my blue waves fair;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy lips, like wine,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Curved to kisses rare!",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Hard as my waves were the eyes that shone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the wine as deadly! Come, love, alone!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Float! Float, on the swelling wave!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Long is the hearse,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Wide the grave;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy pall is a curse",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "From the fading shore",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "A broken verse",
    "indent": 7
   },
   {
    "text": "From a heart wrung sore!",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "“Life’s stream’s wreck-strown!” Ah, like my own!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The words are low",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As a dying groan;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The voice thrills so,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "It might rouse thy breast",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "With pity’s glow,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Wert thou like the rest!",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "But thou, my hero, wert never known",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To feel as a human; thou stoodst, alone.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Down! Down! Behold the wrecks!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I strew the deep",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "With these human specks!",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "No faith I keep",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "With their moral trust;",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "See how I heap",
    "indent": 7
   },
   {
    "text": "Their crumbling dust!",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "I sneered in their faces, my own, my own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As they knelt to pray",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When the ships went down;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I flung my spray",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "In their dying eyes,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And laughed at the way",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "It drowned their cries!",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "On the shore they heard the exultant tone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And said: “The Sea laughs.” Ah, I laughed alone.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now! Now, we twain shall go,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Love-locked,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Laughing so!",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "The fools ye mocked",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "With your tender eyes,",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "The trusts ye rocked",
    "indent": 7
   },
   {
    "text": "With your cradling lies,",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "E’en like these wretches, my own, my own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall rot in clay",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or crumbled bone,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou shalt hold thy way,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Day-kissed and fair,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the wild waves play",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "In the sun-thick air!",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "My arms, my kiss, my tears, my moan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye shall know for aye, where we wander lone.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Love! Love! Thou wert like to me!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy luring gaze",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Rolled relentlessly!",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "The marsh-light blaze",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "To some human soul,",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Down the darkn’ing maze",
    "indent": 7
   },
   {
    "text": "To Ruin’s goal.",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah, how ye crushed them, my beautiful own!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like whistled leaves",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Around thee strown,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Whirled the dead beliefs",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Of each long-mourned life!",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Here, no one grieves:",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Neither tears nor strife",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Appeal to the Sea, where its wrecks are thrown!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou shalt stand in their midst, and smile, alone!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Laugh! Laugh! O form of light!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Death hides",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy faithless sight!",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "The flowing tides",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thy heart are still;",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet are wrecks thy brides,",
    "indent": 7
   },
   {
    "text": "For it is my will",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "That that which on earth made thy heaven, my own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May strew around",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy eternal throne!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The gurgling sound",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the dying cry,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "The gushing wound",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Of heart-agony,",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Were thy joy in life! Now the Sea makes known",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy realm in death! Thy heaven, alone!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Years! Years, ye shall mix with me!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye shall grow a part",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the laughing Sea;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the moaning heart",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the glittered wave",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the sun-gleam’s dart",
    "indent": 7
   },
   {
    "text": "In the ocean-grave.",
    "indent": 8
   },
   {
    "text": "Fair, cold, and faithless wert thou, my own!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For that I love",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy heart of stone!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "From the heights above",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "To the depths below,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Where dread things move,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "There is naught can show",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "A life so trustless! Proud be thy crown!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ruthless, like none, save the Sea, alone!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}