From The Wit and Humor of America, edited by Marshall P. Wilder, Volume IV, New York and London: Funk and Wagnalls and Company, 1911; p. 713.

MEDITATIONS OF A MARINER*

BY WALLACE IRWIN

A-watchin’ how the sea behaves
     For hours and hours I sit;
And I know the sea is full o’ waves —
     I’ve often noticed it.


For on the deck each starry night
     The wild waves and the tame
I counts and knows ’em all by sight
     And some of ’em by name.


And then I thinks a cove like me
     Ain’t got no right to roam;
For I’m homesick when I puts to sea
     And seasick when I’m home.

 *  From “Nautical Lays of a Landsman,“ by Wallace Irwin. Copyright, 1904, by Dodd, Mead & Co.