the cool grey city of love

Tho I die on a distant strand,

And they give me a grave in that land,

Yet carry me back to my own city!

Carry me back to her grace and pity!

For I think I could not rest

Afar from her mighty breast.

She is fairer than others are

Whom they sing the beauty of.

Her heart is a song and a star—

My cool, grey city of love.

Tho they tear the rose from her brow,

To her is ever my vow;

Ever to her I give my duty—

First in rapture and first in beauty,

Wayward, passionate, brave,

Glad of the life God gave.

The sea-winds are her kiss,

And the sea-gull is her dove;

Cleanly and strong she is—

My cool, grey city of love.

The winds of the Future wait

At the iron walls of her Gate,

And the western ocean breaks in thunder,

And the western stars go slowly under,

And her gaze is ever West

In the dream of her young unrest.

Her sea is a voice that calls,

And her star a voice above,

And her wind a voice on her walls—

My cool, grey city of love.

Tho they stay her feet at the dance,

In her is the far romance.

Under the rain of winter falling,

Vine and rose will await recalling.

Tho the dark be cold and blind,

Yet her sea-fog’s touch is kind,

And her mightier caress

Is joy and the pain thereof;

And great is thy tenderness,

O cool, grey city of love!

(San Francisco)
George Sterling (1869–1926)