Lyr. Add: THE OCEAN CHILD

The Sea the Open Sea my home,
No other home have I;
For there I am ever free [to] roam,
And there I'd wish to die.

I've seen the Land & landsmen too,
When twice I've made the Shore;
But best I like the billows blue,
I am proud to hear them roar.

And has it not through Natures track
Such feelings we pursue;
And infant years if we look back,
With tender thoughts renew.

Such as natures work with me,
For I'm the Ocean Child;
I dearly love my mother sea,
The boundless deep and wild.

The madning waves has kissed the clouds,
And hid the shining moon,
While sea birds all around her abroad,
Their awful note old tune.

Ive been there but what fear I,
My birth place is the deep;
But on that bosom let me lie,
That cradled me to sleep.

Typeset by a careless (semi-literate?) printer, not corrected except for 3rd. line, 1st verse.
The first line, theme and 'ocean-child' suggest the author was familiar with "The Sea" by Barry Cornwall.
"The Ocean Child," by Hugh Miller, Scottish poet, 1802-1856, may be the basis for this broadside, but I haven't located a copy.

There are several modern poems mentioning the 'ocean-child'.

Bodleian Library, Harding B16 (177b), no date (mid-19th c.?) or printer.