“Look at that sea, girls--all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn’t enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.”
“They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died. ”
“Sailing lower into the pale green sea, he sought everywhere for the reddish glint of her scales, until the water became dense and dark green and then everything gradually got so black he lost all sight of where he was.”
“Thunder in his ears. Water strangling him. Terror in his soul. The canoe slewed round into the trough. The boy flung himself forward, wound his arms about the mid-thwart. It was the end of a world.”
“And so it was that he shuddered when the mighty seas, gathering far out, hurled themselves at the barrier reef of Hikueru and the whole island quivered under the assault.”
“It was obvious to everyone that Mafatu was useless upon the sea. He would never earn his proper place in the tribe. Stout Heart- how bitter the name must taste upon his father’s lips!”
“The palms, trooping to the edge of the beach, were motionless in the night air. All the world seemed to hold its breath as this boy climbed up out of the sea.”
“But beyond lurked a terrifying world of water and wind. Out there lay everything most to be feared. The boy’s hands tightened on his paddle. Behind him lay safety, security from the sea. What matter if they jeered? For a second he almost turned back.”
“I’ve memorized all the fish in the sea
I’ve memorized each opportunity strangled and
I remember awakening one morning
and finding everything smeared with the color of
forgotten love and I’ve memorized
that too.”
“Together we would walk along the cliff looking at the sea, and though the white men’s ship did not return that spring, it was a happy time. The air smelled of flowers and birds sang everywhere.”
“The Black was looking out on the open sea; his ears pricked forward, his thin-skinned nostrils quivering, his black mane flowing like windswept flame. Alec could not turn his eyes away; he could not believe such a perfect creature existed.”
″ ‘We thought you might be thinking of leaving us,” I told her. “Because you miss the sea.”
Sarah smiled.
“No,” she said. “I will always miss my old home, but the truth of it is I would miss you more.’ ”
“She was going with the whales into the sea and the rain. She was a small figure in a white dress, kicking at the whale as if it were a horse, her braids swinging in the rain.”
It is a story about family, pets, animals, the sea and its numerous creatures, an island nestling a forest and its mysterious beings; an old man in his world building it to a kingdom of his own along with the orangutans and the gibbons; men and animals living together; separations and wars.
“Amos, a mouse, lived by the ocean. He loved the ocean. He loved the smell of sea air. He loved to hear the surf sounds- the bursting breakers, the backwashes with rolling pebbles. He thought a lot about the ocean, and he wondered about the faraway places on the other side of the water.”
“The Rodent, for that was the boat’s name, proved to be very well made and very well suited to the sea. And Amos, after one miserable day of seasickness, proved to be a natural sailor, very well suited to the ship.”
“Amos, a little speck of a living thing in the vast living universe, felt thoroughly akin to it all. Overwhelmed by the beauty and mystery of everything, he rolled over and over and right off the deck of his boat and into the sea.
“The air tasted just the same, smelled just the same. The wind making my hair feel sticky, the salty sea breeze, all of it felt just right. Like it had been waiting for me to get there.”
“...a huge head burst through the surface of the water and loomed up over him. It was a whale. ‘What sort of fish are you?’ the whale asked. ‘You must be one of a kind!’ ‘I’m not a fish,’ said Amos. ‘I’m a mouse, which is a mammal, the highest form of life. I live on land.’ ‘Holy clam and cuttlefish!’ said the whale. ‘I’m a mammal myself, though I live in the sea. Call me Boris,’ he added.”
“They became the closest possible friends. They told each other about their lives, their ambitions. They shared their deepest secrets with each other. The whale was very curious about life on land and was very sorry that he could never experience it. Amos was fascinated by the whale’s accounts of what went on deep under the sea.”
“ “I wish we could be friends forever,’ said Boris. ‘We will be friends forever, but we can’t be together. You must live on and I must live at sea. I’ll never forget you, though.’ “
“Out of this infinite vision an infinity of details could be drawn, but Sorry had settled on one, and from the endless series a particular beach was chosen and began to form around Laura - a beach of iron-dark sand and shells like frail stars, and a wonderful wide sea that stretched, neither green nor blue, but inked by the approach of night into violet and black, wrinkling with its own salty puzzles, right out to a distant, pure horizon.”
“And every year, folk come from all over Cornwall at Christmas time, to see Mousehole lit up with a thousand lights, shining their message of hope and a safe haven to all those who pass in peril of the sea.”
“And so it was that he was taken off guard as the little boat made its bid for freedom. Soothed by the sweetness of Mowzer’s serenade, the Great Storm-Cat paused in his prowling and pulled back his giant cat’s paw for a mere moment. Swiftly the little boat passed through the Mousehole and out into the open sea.
Then the Great Storm-Cat played with them as a cat plays with a mouse. He would let them loose for a little as they fought their way towards the fishing grounds. Then down would come his giant cat’s paw in a flurry of foam and water. But he did not yet strike to sink them, for that would have spoiled his sport.”
“All day they fished in a seething sea. The waves were so high and the clouds were so low that they soon lost sight of the shore.
And all the time the Great Storm-Cat played with the little boat, striking it and then losing it, but never quite sinking it. And whenever his claws grew to sharp, Mowzer would sing to him to soften the edge of his anger.”
“And men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty waves of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, yet pass over the mystery of themselves without a thought.”
“Every summer Stina visited her grandfather in his house by the sea. And every summer she went treasure hunting. Smooth sticks, sea stars, feathers, there was so much to be found.”
“Drac fights off the Gremlin’s treacherous attach with her ultra-laser beam. She chases him into the
quivering jungles, across the bubbling seas, and through the dark and poisonous fumes of the black
volcano.”
“The earth was rushing past like a river or a sea below him. Trees and water and green grass hurried away beneath. Now there was nothing but the roofs of houses sweeping along like a great torrent of stones and rocks. Chimney’s fell and tiles flew from the roofs. There was a great roaring for the wind was dashing against London like a stormy sea. Diamond, of course, at the back of North Wind was in a calm but he could hear it.”
“There was a single blue line of crayon drawn across every wall in the house. What does it mean? I asked. A pirate needs the sight of the sea, he said and then he pulled his eye patch down and turned and sailed away.”
“And even the children giggled and pushed closer to see this Wolf, who had sailed on every sea man knew, yet hated the very thought of water touching his tender skin.”
″‘It must be the sea!’ exclaimed Moomintroll with a whoop of joy, and he started running upwind, his heart thumping with excitement, for if there is anything Moomintrolls really love, it is swimming.”
At the Seaside
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore,
My holes were empty like a cup,
In every hole the sea came up
Till it could come no more
Singing
Of speckled eggs the birdie sings
And nests among the trees;
The sailor sings of ropes and things
In ships upon the seas.
The children sing in far Japan,
The children sing in Spain;
The organ with the organ man
Is singing in the rain.
“Windy Nights
Whenever the moon and stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet,
A man goes riding by,
Late in the night when the fires are out,
Why does he gallop and gallop about?
Whenever the trees are crying aloud,
And ships are tossed at sea,
By, on the highway, low and loud,
By at the gallop goes he,
By at the gallop he goes, and then
By he comes back at the gallop again.”
″ ‘Meat and drink on the same tree!’ cried Peterkin; ‘washing in the sea, lodging on the ground, -and all for nothing! My dear boys, we’re set up for life; it must be the ancient Paradise, -hurrah!’ ”
“What a joyful thing it is to awaken, on a fresh glorious morning, and find the rising sun staring into your face with dazzling brilliancy! -to see the birds twittering in the bushes, and to hear the murmuring of a rill, or the soft hissing ripples as they fall upon the sea-shore!”
“When you and I Grow Up
When you and I
Grow up-Polly-
I mean that you and me,
Shall go sailing in a big ship
Right over all the sea.
We’ll wait till we are older,
For if we went to-day,
You know that we might lose ourselves,
And never find the way.”
“If that city, which he had seen, had not sunk into the sea again, then it would perhaps become as dilapidated as this one in a little while. Perhaps it could not have withstood time and decay, but would have stood there with roofless churches and bare houses and desolate, empty streets–just like this one. Then it was better that it should re- main in all its glory down in the deep.”
“So they stumbled along drenched with the waves, and clustered round Elzevir, for they looked on him as a leader, because he knew the ways of the sea and was the only one left calm in this dreadful strait.”