"The Cry of the Drowned"

The Cry of the Drowned

I am dead, dead,

        Down under the sea at rest!

I am drowned, drowned,

        The waves press hard on my breast!

And curious eyes stare long at me,

And all the fishes wonder at me,

And horrible things crawl over me,

        Under the sea, dead.

I am dead, dead,

        And the ships sail over my head!

I am drowned, drowned,

        They sail over my deep, still bed!

And old, sweet faces look down at me,

And old, glad voices float over me,

And loved hands ever beckon to me,

        Under the sea, dead!

I am dead, dead, 

        They cannot see me that look, 

I am drowned, drowned,

        My life is a closed book!

And those above see only the waves,

Nor ever think how each one laves

The broken hearts in the lonely graves, 

        Under the sea, dead.

I am dead, dead, 

        But oh, this deathless soul!

Though I am drowned, drowned,

        It sees thro’ the waves that roll,

The thoughts that no longer turn to me,

And the lips that no longer yearn for me,

And the hearts that no longer burn for me, 

        How bitter to be dead!

"The Cry of the Drowned" as it appears in Ella Higginson's The Voice of April-Land (1903).

"The Cry of the Drowned" as it appears in Ella Higginson's Four-Leaf Clover (1901).

A draft of "The Cry of the Drowned" on onionskin paper, courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA.