SHALL I thus ever long, and be no whit the neare? <br />And shall I still complain to thee, the which me will not hear? <br /> Alas! say nay! say nay! and be no more so dumb, <br />But open thou thy manly mouth and say that thou wilt come: <br /> Whereby my heart may think, although I see not thee, <br />That thou wilt come--thy word so sware--if thou a live man be. <br /> The roaring hugy waves they threaten my poor ghost, <br />And toss thee up and down the seas in danger to be lost. <br /> Shall they not make me fear that they have swallowed thee? <br />--But as thou art most sure alive, so wilt thou come to me. <br /> Whereby I shall go see thy ship ride on the strand, <br />And think and say Lo where he comes and Sure here will he land: <br /> And then I shall lift up to thee my little hand, <br />And thou shalt think thine heart in ease, in health to see me stand. <br /> And if thou come indeed (as Christ thee send to do!) <br />Those arms which miss thee now shall then embrace [and hold] thee too: <br /> <br /> Each vein to every joint the lively blood shall spread <br />Which now for want of thy glad sight doth show full pale and dead. <br /> But if thou slip thy troth, and do not come at all, <br />As minutes in the clock do strike so call for death I shall: <br /> To please both thy false heart and rid myself from woe, <br />That rather had to die in troth than live forsaken so!<br /><br />Anonymous<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-her-sea-faring-lover/
