ROBERT LEADER
THE CALL OF THE SEA
“Oh to go down to the sea again,”
John Betjeman grandly wrote,
Words as true now, as they ever were then,
Of the song in our blood, and a boat.
For the soul of an Englishman longs to be free,
To cut loose with the ebbing tide.
The soul of an Englishman longs for the sea,
To sail on the oceans wide.
To ride on the waves,
To challenge the winds,
Under the cloud-racing sky.
To taste the salt spray,
To feel the salt breeze,
And hear the wild seagulls cry.
Those seas that lap on our island shores,
Echo the heart’s pulse in our veins,
And the lure of the ships, both great and small,
Will call us again and again.