I am the child of earth and air and sea,
My lullaby by hoarse Silurian storms
Was chanted; and through endless changing forms
Of plant and bird and beast unceasingly
The toiling ages wrought to fashion me.
Lo, these large ancestors have left a breath
Of their strong souls in mine, defying d**h
And doom. I grow and blossom as the tree,
And ever feel deep-delving, earthy roots
Binding me daily to the common clay;
But with its airy impulse upward shoots
My life into the realms of light and day.
And though, O Sea, stern mother of my soul,
Thy tempests sing in me, thy billows roll!