The Street and the Sea

by

James A. Quinby

There are dwellers in houses of steel and stone

Who list to the voice of the street.

There are seekers of ocean trails dim and lone,

Where the far horizons meet.

They are sundered apart, these two, by the space

That lies from star to star ---

The toiler who walks in the market-place

And the spirit who roves afar.

I have prayed to the God of the canyon’d lane

And the God of the off-shore breeze,

For I yearn in the fullness of time to gain

A little from each of these,

An echoing thrill from the cruising fleet ---

A boon that my place shall be,

Where the smell of the sea comes up to the street

And the street goes down to the sea.