Sea and Shore

'Why do you tear at

My towers and my turrets,

My walls and my pillars

My barrs and my beach;

And mutter like musings

Of untoward poets,

And scatter your silences

Out of my reach?’

 

‘Why do you surge and

Assault in your anger

The fortress I built for

My lady asleep,

And slowly dismiss each

Dispute you remember

By wearing each stone

From the base of the Keep?’

 

‘What is the torment that

Claws at the crofters,

The meadows, the rookeries

Close to your door,

And where is the mistress

As sweet and as soft as

The ripples you listlessly

Waste by the shore?’

 

                 II 

 

‘I’ll balk and I’ll beat

At your very foundations,

I'll tear down your turrets

And pillars of stone,

The lady that sleeps at

The edge of my oceans

Was mine when your acres

Were torn from my throne.’

 

‘But time has not told

All the tales of my fathoms

And constant I am

To the love that I keep,

Each year I assault and

Encroach your dominions,

Your towers and your turrets,

Your castle and keep.’

 

                III

 

‘Long may you surge and

Assault my defences,

Beat in your anger

At granite and slate,

The lady that sleeps has

No further pretences,

Your labour of love

A millennium late.’

 

               IV

 

‘Now shall I fume at

My lady’s defection and

All her deceptions

From headland and Tor,

Love is as false as

Your petty foundations

When love may be left

Beating up on the shore.’

 

David Lewis Paget