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by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956)

Sam
Language: English 
When Sam goes back in memory
  It is to where the sea
Breaks on the shingle, emerald-green,
  In white foam, endlessly;
He says -- with small brown eye on mine --
  'I used to keep awake,
And lean from my window in the moon,
  Watching those billows break.
And half a million tiny hands,
  And eyes, like sparks of frost,
Would dance and come tumbling into the moon,
  On every breaker tossed.
And all across from star to star,
  I've seen the watery sea,
With not a single ship in sight,
  Just ocean there, and me;
And heard my father snore. And once,
  As sure as I'm alive,
Out of those wallowing, moon-flecked waves
  I saw a mermaid dive;
Head and shoulders above the wave,
  Plain as I now see you,
Combing her hair, now back, now front,
  Her two eyes peeping through;
Calling me, "Sam!" -- quietlike -- "Sam!" . . .
  But me . . .  I never went,
Making believe I kind of thought
  'Twas some one else she meant . . .
Wonderful lovely there she sat,
  Singing the night away,
All in the solitudinous sea
  Of that there lonely bay.
P'raps,' and he'd smooth his hairless mouth,
  'P'raps, if 'twere now, my son,
Praps, if I heard a voice say, "Sam!" . . .
  Morning would find me gone.'

Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada and the U.S., but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Confirmed with Peacock Pie. A Book of Rhymes by Walter de la Mare, London: Constable & Co. Ltd., [1920], pages 97-99.


Text Authorship:

  • by Walter De la Mare (1873 - 1956), "Sam", appears in Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes, in 4. Places and People, no. 6, first published 1913 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2014-04-15
Line count: 36
Word count: 220

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