A life on the ocean wave!
A home on the rolling deep!
Where the scatter'd waters rave,
And the winds their revels keep!
Like an eagle cag'd I pine,
On this dull unchanging shore—
Oh give me the flashing brine,
The spray and the tempest's roar.
A life on the ocean wave!
A home on the rolling deep!
Where the scatter'd waters rave,
And the winds their revels keep!
Once more on the deck I stand
Of my own swift-gliding craft,
Set sail! farewell to the land,
The gale follows fair abaft.
We shoot through the sparkling foam,
Like an ocean bird set free;
Like the ocean bird our home,
We'll find far out on the sea.
A life on the ocean wave! &c.
The land is no longer in view;
The clouds have begun to frown;
But with a stout vessel and crew,
We'll say let the storm come down.
And the song of our hearts shall be,
While the winds and the waters rave,
A life on the heaving sea!
A home on the bounding wave.
A life on the ocean wave! &c.