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The Old Magic

From The Topeka State Journal, December 6, 1913. By Berton Braley.

I left the sea behind, that I might dwell
    ‘Mid streets where millions hurry to and fro,
Where surging crowds and roaring traffic swell
    The city’s vast enchantment that I know;
    But still the vagrant breezes whisper low
Of rolling deeps and spaces wide and free,
    Of reef and shoal and derelict and floe,
To mightier magic of the surging sea!

I love the city and I love it well,
    Its gold and want, its happiness and woe;
Sometimes it seems no glamour may excel
    The city’s vast enchantment that I know;
    But memory will never have it so—
She brings again the days “that used to be.”
    Once more I feel, as in the long ago,
The mightier magic of the surging sea.

The city streets—what stories they could tell!
    Touched with the wonder of the passing show,
The seething life, the loves and hates that spell
    The city’s vast enchantment that I know;
    The noise and haste, the myriad lights aglow,
The plots and schemes, the mirth and mystery.
    And yet I hear, in all the winds that blow,
The mightier magic of the surging sea.

What thrill it gives, what dreams it can bestow
The city’s vast enchantment that I know!
But I must follow, when this calls to me,
The mightier magic of the surging sea.

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