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by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)

Young Sea
Language: English 
The sea is never still.
It pounds on the shore
Restless as a young heart,
Hunting.

The sea speaks
And only the stormy hearts
Know what it says:
It is the face
of a rough mother speaking.

The sea is young.
One storm cleans all the hoar
And loosens the age of it.
I hear it laughing, reckless.

They love the sea,
Men who ride on it
And know they will die
Under the salt of it.

Let only the young come,
Says the sea.
Let them kiss my face
And hear me.
I am the last word
And I tell
Where storms and stars come from.

Confirmed with Carl Sandburg, Poetry for young people, New York : Sterling, 2008, p.10


Text Authorship:

  • by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), "Young Sea", appears in Chicago Poems, first published 1916, copyright status unknown [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):

  • by Jodi Goble (b. 1974), "Young Sea" [ soprano and piano ], from Sea Creatures, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2025-10-09
Line count: 24
Word count: 107

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