O leave the labouring roadways of the town, <br />The shifting faces and the changeful hue <br />Of markets, and broad echoing streets that drown <br />The heart’s own silent music. Though they too <br />Sing in their proper rhythm, and still delight <br />The friendly ear that loves warm human kind, <br />Yet it is good to leave them all behind, <br />Now when from lily dawn to purple night <br />Summer is queen, <br />Summer is queen in all the happy land. <br />Far, far away among the valleys green <br />Let us go forth and wander hand in hand <br />Beyond those solemn hills that we have seen <br />So often welcome home the falling sun <br />Into their cloudy peaks when day was done— <br />Beyond them till we find the ocean strand <br />And hear the great waves run, <br />With the waste song whose melodies I’d follow <br />And weary not for many a summer day, <br />Born of the vaulted breakers arching hollow <br />Before they flash and scatter into spray, <br />On, if we should be weary of their play <br />Then I would lead you further into land <br />Where, with their ragged walls, the stately rocks <br />Shunt in smooth courts and paved with quiet sand <br />To silence dedicate. The sea-god’s flocks <br />Have rested here, and mortal eyes have seen <br />By great adventure at the dead of noon <br />A lonely nereid drowsing half a-swoon <br />Buried beneath her dark and dripping locks.<br /><br />Clive Staples Lewis<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-ocean-strand/
