Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. IV. The Nineteenth Century: Wordsworth to Rossetti

Charles Kingsley (1819–1875)

The Sands of Dee (from Alton Locke)

‘O MARY, go and call the cattle home,

And call the cattle home,

Across the sands o’ Dee;’

The western wind was wild and dank wi’ foam,

And all alone went she.

The creeping tide came up along the sand,

And o’er and o’er the sand,

And round and round the sand,

As far as eye could see;

The blinding mist came down and hid the land—

And never home came she.

‘Oh, is it weed, or fish, or floating hair—

A tress o’ golden hair,

O’ drownèd maiden’s hair,

Above the nets at sea?

Was never salmon yet that shone so fair,

Among the stakes on Dee.’

They rowed her in across the rolling foam,

The cruel, crawling foam,

The cruel, hungry foam,

To her grave beside the sea;

But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home,

Across the sands o’ Dee.