The Departure (Sargent)

by Epes Sargent

   Again thy winds are pealing in mine ear!
   Again thy waves are flashing in my sight!
   Thy memory-haunting tones again I hear,
   As, through the spray, our vessel wings her flight!
   On thy cerulean breast, now swelling high,
   Again, thou broad Atlantic, am I cast!
   Six years, with noiseless tread, have glided by,
   Since the unsounded deep I traversed last.
   The sea-birds o'er me wheel, as if to greet
   An old companion; on my naked brow,
   The sparkling foam-drops not unkindly beat;
   Flows through my hair the fresh'ning breeze---and now
   Th' horizon's ring enclasps me; and I stand,
Gazing where fades from view, cloud-like, my father-land!