The vast ocean and seas cover an enormous 71% of our planet and are a crucial part of our existence. Their enigmatic depths have long been a source of fascination, awe, and fear for mankind. It’s, therefore, no surprise that there are so many sea quotes and sayings to be found.
Personally, I’ve always been a bit obsessed with the sea! As a kid, I desperately wanted to be a mermaid… and I’m not sure that has really changed. There’s something so therapeutic and magical about the ocean, whether swimming or diving in it, sailing on it, or resting on the beach next to it.
Just being on the coast conjures up many different emotions. We know very little about our world’s seas, yet we feel inexplicably tied to them by nature.
Unsurprisingly, many of these quotes about the sea reflect the similarities between the ebb and flow of our vast oceans and life. Whether you’re looking for inspirational or motivational sea quotes, short captions for Instagram, or funny quotes about the ocean… we’ve got them all here!
You may also enjoy our other quotes blogs:
- 200+ Best Beach Quotes
- 275+ Nature Quotes and Captions for Instagram
- Best Quotes About Road Trips
- 130+ Sunset Quotes and Captions for Instagram
- Hiking Quotes to Inspire You
- Top Mountain Quotes
- 160+ Best Waterfall Quotes
WRITTEN BY: Sophie Clapton, Ocean lover and wannabe mermaid.
Facebook | Instagram
Popular Quotes About the Sea
Being in or near the salt water brings me so much joy, and collecting these quotes about the sea was like a vicarious dive into the ocean!
These sea quotes come from a variety of famous poets, authors, swimmers, and more!
- “The sea is an underwater museum still awaiting its visitors.” – Phillip Diole
- “To me, the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim–the rocks–the motion of the waves–the ships, with men in them, What stranger miracles are there?” – Walt Whitman
- “Would you learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers, comprehend its mystery!” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- “That the sea is one of the most beautiful and magnificent sights in Nature, all admit.” – John Joly
- “The sea always filled her with longing, though for what she was never sure.” – Cornelia Funke
- “At night, when the sky is full of stars and the sea is still you get the wonderful sensation that you are floating in space.” – Natalie Wood
- “When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
- “The sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free!” – Bryan W. Procter
- “The sea is a desert of waves, A wilderness of water.” – Langston Hughes
- “To me, the sea is like a person — like a child that I’ve known a long time. It sounds crazy, I know, but when I swim in the sea I talk to it. I never feel alone when I’m out there.” – Gertrude Ederle
More Sea Quotes
The ocean is a popular subject for many authors. Below we continue with some less famous quotes about the sea!
- “The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.” – Karen Blixen
- “The sound and smell of the sea cleanses my soul.”
- “See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me. And no one knows, how far it goes.” – Disney’s Moana
- “With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live.” – Sylvia Earle
- “My soul is full of longing for the secrets of the sea, and the heart of the great ocean sends a thrilling pulse through me.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- “I wanted freedom, open air and adventure. I found it on the sea.” – Alain Gerbeault
- “The sea does not like to be restrained.” – Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
- “And the sea will grant each man new hope, as sleep brings dreams of home.” – Larry Ferguson
- “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always our self we find in the sea.” – E. E. Cummings
- “The sea possesses a power over one’s moods that has the effect of a will. The sea can hypnotize. Nature in general can do so.” – Henrik Ibsen
- “There’s nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you’ve been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent.” – Dave Barry
FIND MORE INSPIRATION: 101+ Dream Destinations for your Travel Bucket List
Ocean Quotes and Sayings
With 321,000,000 cubic miles, or around 352 quintillion gallons, of water in our oceans and seas, this first ocean quote seems pretty spot on!
- “How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly Ocean.” – Arthur C. Clarke
- “Dear ocean, thank you for making us feel tiny, humble, inspired, and salty …all at once.”
- “A pool just isn’t the same as the ocean. It has no energy. No life.” – Linda Gerber
- “Take me to the ocean. Let me sail the open sea. To breathe the warm and salty air and dream of things to be.” – Erica Billups
- “We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came…” – John F. Kennedy
- “Limitless and immortal, the waters are the beginning and end of all things on earth.” – Heinrich Zimmer
- “I must be a mermaid. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.” – Anais Nin
- “The ocean makes me feel really small and it makes me put my whole life into perspective.” – Beyoncé Knowles
- “The ocean has always been a salve to my soul…the best thing for a cut or abrasion was to go swimming in salt water. Later down the road of life, I made the discovery that salt water was also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land.” – Jimmy Buffet
- “The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach.” – Henry Beston
- “Every time I slip into the ocean, it’s like going home.” – Sylvia Earle
- “The ocean is a mighty harmonist.” – William Wordsworth
- “In the beginning, there was only ocean.” – Disney’s Moana
Short Sea Quotes
Because sometimes less is more…
- “The waves of the sea help me get back to me.” – Jill Davis
- “Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.” -Kahlil Gibran
- “Eternity begins and ends with the ocean’s tides.”
- “The ocean is everything I want to be. Beautiful, mysterious, wild and free.”
- “Smell the sea and feel the sky. Let your soul and spirit fly.” – Van Morrison
- “Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone.”
- “The oceans roar is music to the soul.”
- “A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind.” – Webb Chiles
- “Follow the river and you will find the sea.” – French Proverb
- “Life is a sea of vibrant color. Jump in.” – A.D. Posey
Funny Sea Quotes and Puns
Life is often too serious. These funny sea quotes and puns encompass the fun nature of the ocean. So without further ado, let’s “dive” right in…
- “All I need is a good dose of vitamin sea.”
- “Seas the day.”
- “Long time, no sea.”
- “Sea la vie!”
- “If there’s a will there’s a wave.”
- “Sea you soon!”
- “I’m a true oceanholic.”
- “Go with the flow.”
- “I need to be seahabilitated.”
- “Happier than a seagull with a French fry.”
- “I was mermaid for this sea-sun.“
- “I whale always love you.”
FIND THE PERFECT CAPTION FOR YOUR PHOTO: Best Waterfall Quotes for Instagram
Sea Captions for Instagram
Looking for the perfect sea Instagram caption to accompany your beautiful ocean photo? I know for me, finding the right Instagram caption is usually the hardest part of posting! But fear not, we’ve got you covered with these great ocean captions.
- “Wild and free, just like the sea.”
- “Life is simple: just add water.”
- “We dream in colors borrowed from the sea.”
- “Let the sea set you free.”
- “Me and the ocean: Love at first sight.”
- “High tides. Good vibes.”
- “You, me and the sea.”
- “We got no troubles, life is the bubbles, under the sea.” – The Little Mermaid, “Under the Sea”
- “Thalassophile (n) A lover of the sea, someone who loves the sea/ocean.”
- “Advice from the Ocean: Be shore of yourself. Come out of your shell. Take time to coast. Avoid pier pressure. Sea life’s beauty. Don’t get so tide down on work that you miss out on life’s beautiful waves.”
- “Friends, sun, sand and sea. That sounds like a summer to me.”
- “I am happy anywhere I can see the ocean.”
- “The ocean is my happy place.”
By the Sea Quotes
Being by the sea is one of my favourite places to be… as well as being in the sea of course. These by the sea quotes help to capture all the feelings associated with the seaside. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for here, then check out our 200+ Best Quotes About the Beach for more inspiration!
- “If you’re lucky enough to live by the sea, you’re lucky enough.”
- “The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.” – Rachel Carson
- “In still moments by the sea life seems large-drawn and simple. It is there we can see into ourselves.” – Rolf Edberg
- “Those who live by the sea can hardly form a single thought of which the sea would not be part.” – Hermann Broch
- “Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.” – Sarah Kay
- “Nothing soothes the soul like a day by the ocean!”
- “There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more.” – Lord Byron
- “If everyone could just live near the ocean, I think we’d all be happier. It’s hard to be down about anything knee-deep in the sand.” – Crystal Woods
- “The calming movement of the sea along with the restless ocean breeze gently caresses me creating a soothing trance which lulls me to a place of peace.” – M. L. Borges, By The Sea
FIND MORE SEASIDE QUOTES: 200+ Best Quotes About the Beach
Inspirational Quotes About the Sea
Maybe you’re looking for some inspiration from the sea or just need an inspirational sea caption to accompany your Instagram photo – either way these should do the job!
- “We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.” – William James
- “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”
- “A smooth sea never made a skilful sailor.”
- “Ideals are like the stars: we never reach them, but like the mariners of the sea, we chart our course by them.” – Carl Schurz
- “We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.” – Aristotle Onassis
- “The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. … Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach – waiting for a gift from the sea.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh
- “Let the waves carry you where the light cannot.” – Mohit Kaushik
- “There must be something strangely sacred in salt. It is in our tears and in the sea.” – Khalil Gibran
- “They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.” – Francis Bacon
- “The sea lives in every one of us.” – Robert Wyland
- “I feel we are all islands – in a common sea.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh
- “The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.” – Jacques Yves Cousteau
- “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.” – King Solomon
More Inspirational Ocean Quotes
Not quite found the right inspirational quote about the sea? Well, don’t worry, here’s some more…
- “Life is like the ocean, it goes up and down.” – Vanessa Paradis
- “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” – Mahatma Gandhi
- “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” – Mother Teresa
- “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
- “It makes you feel small, but not in a bad way. Small because you realize you’re part of something bigger.” – Lauren Myracle
- “Things aren’t always as they appear on the surface.”
- “Water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing, in the end, can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone.” – Margaret Atwood
- “Dream higher than the sky and deeper than the ocean.”
- “You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
- “In the waves of change, we find our direction.”
Rough Seas Quotes
While you may be picturing tranquil seas lapping against a tropical beach, the ocean can be tumultuous and threatening, too. These rough seas quotes focus on the oceans powerful side, and the life lessons to be taken from it.
- “Rough seas make stronger sailors. Tough times build greater people.” – Robin Sharma
- “But where, after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves?” – Joshua Slocum
- “Great sea captains are made in rough waters and deep seas.” – Kathryn Kuhlman
- “We are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton
- “The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.” – Martin Luther King
- “Storms draw something out of us that calm seas don’t.” – Bill Hybels
- “I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.” – Louisa May Alcott
- “No matter how rough the sea, I refuse to sink.”
- “What world lies beyond that stormy sea I do not know, but every ocean has a distant shore, and I shall reach it.” – Cesare Pavese
- “Family is a life jacket in the stormy sea of life.” – J.K. Rowling
- “Life’s roughest storms prove the strength of our anchors.”
Calm Seas Quotes
- “Life is like the ocean. It can be calm or still, and rough or rigid, but in the end, it is always beautiful.”
- “The man who has experienced shipwreck shudders even at a calm sea.” – Ovid
- “There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.” – Willa Cather
- “Great people are not affected by each puff of wind that blows ill. Like great ships, they sail serenely on, in a calm sea or a great tempest.” – George Washington
- “Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” – Publilius Syrus
- “As the sea is beautiful not only in calm but also in storm, so is happiness found not only in peace but also in strife.”– Ivan Panin
Quotes About Sea and Life
The seas are often used as metaphors for life. We each have our own storm to ride out and challenges to overcome… Therefore, it’s no surprise that there are so many sea quotes about life.
- “Time and tide wait for no man.” – Saint Marher
- “If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it.” – Jonathan Winters
- “Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.” – Albert Schweitzer
- “Life is as inexorable as the sea.” – Thomas Wentworth Higginson
- “Maybe life was like a sea, and all the people were like boats … Everybody who was born was cast into the sea. Winds would blow them in all directions. Tides would rise and turn, in their own rhythm. And the boats – they just went along as best they could, trying to find a harbor.” – Cynthia Voigt
- “Thought is the wind, knowledge is the sail, and mankind is the vessel.” – August Hare
- “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” – Jon Kabat-Zan
- “At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.”– Robin Lee Graham
- “To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
- “You never really know what’s coming. A small wave, or maybe a big one. All you can really do is hope that when it comes, you can surf over it, instead of drown in its monstrosity.” – Alysha Speer
- “Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge.” – Isaac Bashevis Singer
- “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” – William Arthur Ward
Love of the Sea Quotes
For many of us, it’s love at first sight when we see the sea. I know it captured my heart long ago. It’s incredible diversity never ceases to amaze me and I could spend hours lost in its technicolour world below the surface.
- “I lost my heart to the sea.”
- “Why is it that scuba divers and surfers are some of the strongest advocates of ocean conservation? Because they’ve spent time in and around the ocean, and they’ve personally seen the beauty, the fragility, and even the degradation of our planet’s blue heart.” – Sylvia Earle
- “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” – Jacques Yves Cousteau
- “Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.” – Robert Henri
- “It isn’t that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better.” – Sir Francis Drake
- “Dance with the waves, move with the sea. Let the rhythm of the water set your soul free.” – Christy Ann Martine
- “The sea is as near as we come to another world.” – Anne Stevenson
- “The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.” – Kate Chopin
- “She loves the serene brutality of the ocean, loves the electric power she felt with each breath of wet, briny air.” – Holly Black
- “Ships are safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for. So set sail on the stormy sea of love. You’re going to get soaked at times, but at least you’ll know you’re alive.” – Dan Millman
- “The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths, it has its pearls too.” – Vincent van Gogh
Romantic Sea Quotes
A visit to the beach or a twilight sail makes for a perfect date, and there’s plenty of romantic sea quotes to go along with it!
- “You are the only fish in the sea for me.”
- “Meet me where the sky touches the sea.” – Jennifer Donnelly
- “The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.” – Robert Wyland
- “Ocean separates lands, not souls.” – Munia Khan
- “Together we can face challenges as deep as the ocean and as high as the sky.” – Sonia Gandhi
- “Individually we are one drop. Together we are an ocean.” – Ryunosuke Satoro
- “Our love is as deep as the ocean.”
- “If you want to know how much I love you, count all the waves in the sea.”
- “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” – Rumi
- “As the ocean is never full of water, so is the heart never full of love.”
- “I love you more than there are grains of sand on the beach, fish in the sea, and waves in the ocean.”
Final Thoughts on the 150+ Best Sea Quotes
I hope that these sea quotes provided some inspiration to fill your lungs with salty air, or perhaps helped to complete that perfect Instagram post! Don’t forget to tag us on Instagram if you use any of them – we love seeing your photos and sharing them!
Do you have a favourite sea quote or ocean musing on this list? Or are there any we’ve missed?! As always, leave us a comment and let us know what you think.
Don’t forget to check out our other quotes blogs from more inspiration:
- 200+ Best On the Beach Quotes
- 275+ Nature Quotes and Captions for Instagram
- Top Mountain Quotes
- 130+ Sunset Captions for Instagram
- Road Trip Quotes to Inspire Wanderlust
- 160+ Best Quotes About Waterfalls
- 120+ Quotes About Hiking
Before you go, you may also like some of these posts for more travel inspiration and coastal destinations:
- 101+ Dream Destinations for your Travel Bucket List
- Top Photo Locations in Hawaii
- Beautiful Oahu Instagram Locations
- The Best Maui Instagram Spots
- Most Beautiful Places in Kauai
- Best Oregon Coast Photography Locations
Enjoyed these 150+ Sea Quotes? Pin them! 🙂
Because sharing is caring!
The Best Sea Quotes and Captions
There is something about the word ‘sea’ that allows an immediate sense of calm to wash over me.
I can’t help envisioning myself staring out at the ocean on a summer day and smelling the sea salt while my hair blows back and forth in the sea breeze. Add in a picnic on the sand with a French baguette and some brie cheese on a weekend afternoon and it’s like my mind is guiding me on my own mediation through imagination.
I’m curious. What is it that you picture when you think of the sea?
I have written about quotes pertaining to the ocean and vacation before; my beach quotes post is a popular article. But, I noticed that some of you were looking specifically for sea quotes and sea captions. That is why I decided to make a post specifically dedicated to quotes about the sea and captions for the sea.
It’s interesting. At the time, I hadn’t even thought that it might be prudent to separate these posts. However, the sea, the ocean, the beach, and the shore — each word brings back a completely different memory — so it makes absolute sense that anyone researching quotes about any one of these terms would be looking for something more specific.
If you would like further inspiration or quotes that pertain more to the beach, definitely take a look at these beach quotes in my post entitled 30 Best Beach Quotes You Need to Read.
Quotes about the Sea
1. “Smell the sea and feel the sky. Let your soul and spirit fly.” – Van Morrison
2. “Take me to the ocean. Let me sail the open sea. To breathe the warm and salty air and dream of things to be.” – Erica Billups
3. “I’m pretty sure my birthstone is a sea shell.” – Unknown
4. “The sound and smell of the sea cleanses my soul.” – Unknown
5. “I feel we are all islands – in a common sea.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh
6. “I wanted freedom, open air and adventure. I found it on the sea.” – Alain Gerbeault
7. “We dream in colors borrowed from the sea.” – Unknown
8. “The sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free!” – Bryan W. Procter
9. “The sea is a desert of waves, a wilderness of water.” – Langston Hughes
10. “You can never cross the ocean until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Christopher Columbus
11. “Dance with the waves, move with the sea. Let the rhythm of the water set your soul free.” – Christy Ann Martine
12. The first “I believe in the ocean curing all bad moods. I believe in the waves wiping away worries. I believe in seashells bringing good luck. I believe in toes in the sand grounding my soul.” – Unknown
13. “Follow the river and you will find the sea.” – French Proverb
14. “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” – Jacques Yves Cousteau
15. “A beach is not only a sweep of sand, but shells of sea creatures, the sea glass, the seaweed, the incongruous objects washed up by the ocean.” – Henry Grunwald
16. “Advice from the Ocean: Be shore of yourself. Come out of your shell. Take time to coast. Avoid pier pressure. Sea life’s beauty. Don’t get so tide down on work that you miss out on life’s beautiful waves.” – Unknown
17. “Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
18. “Friends, sun, sand and sea. That sounds like a summer to me.” – Unknown
19. “The sea is an underwater museum still awaiting its visitors.” – Phillip Diole
20. “The sea always filled her with longing, though for what she was never sure.” – Cornelia Funke
21. “My soul is full of longing for the secret of the sea, and the heart of the great ocean sends a thrilling pulse through me.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
22. “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” – Rabindranath Tagore
23. “The sea appears all golden. Beneath the sun-lit sky.” – Heinrich Heine
24. “Is this chicken what I have, or is this fish? I know it’s tuna, but it says ‘Chicken of the Sea’.” – Jessica Simpson 🙂
25. “The sea does not link to be restrained.”- Rick Riordan
26. “At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.” – Robin Lee Graham
27. “To me, the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim–the rocks–the motion of the waves–the ships, with men in them, What stranger miracles are there?” – Walt Whitman
28. “Would you learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers, comprehend its mystery!” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
29. “That the sea is one of the most beautiful and magnificent sights in Nature, all admit.” – John Joly
30. “At night, when the sky is full of stars and the sea is still you get the wonderful sensation that you are floating in space.” – Natalie Wood
31. “When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
32. “To me, the sea is like a person like a child that I’ve known a long time. It sounds crazy, I know, but when I swim in the sea I talk to it. I never feel alone when I’m out there.” – Gertrude Ederle
33. “The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper; I cannot quite make it out.” – Annie Dillard
34. “The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.” – Karen Blixen
35. “With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live.” – Sylvia Earle
36. “And the sea will grant each man new hope, as sleep brings dreams of home.” – Larry Ferguson
37. “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always our self we find in the sea.” – E. E. Cummings
38. “The sea possesses a power over one’s moods that has the effect of a will. The sea can hypnotize. Nature in general can do so.” – Henrik Ibsen
39. “There’s nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you’ve been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent.” – Dave Barry
40. “The sea lives in every one of us.” – Robert Wyland
41. “She loves the serene brutality of the ocean, loves the electric power she felt with each breath of wet, briny air.” – Holly Black
42. “Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.” – Robert Henri
43. “At the beach, life is different. Time doesn’t move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides and follow the sun.” — Sandy Gingras
44. “Let the waves carry you where the light cannot” – Mohit Kaushik
45. “The calming movement of the sea along with the restless ocean breeze gently caresses me creating a soothing trance which lulls me to a place of peace.” – M. L. Borges, By The Sea
46. “But where, after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves?” – Joshua Slocum
47. “The sea is as near as we come to another world.” – Anne Stevenson
48. “I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.” – Anais Nin
49. “The waves of the sea help me get back to me.” – Jill Davis
50. “Life is as inexorable as the sea.” – Thomas Wentworth Higginson
51. “The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths, it has its pearls too.” – Vincent van Gogh
52. “Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.” – Sarah Kay
53. “Rough seas make stronger sailors. Tough times build greater people.” – Robin Sharma
54. “The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.” – Vladimir Nabokov
55. “In still moments by the sea life seems large-drawn and simple. It is there we can see into ourselves.” –Rolf Edberg
Sea Captions for Instagram
56. “Meet me where the sky touches the sea.” – Jennifer Donnelly
57. Happier than a seagull with a French fry.
58. You are the only fish in the sea for me.
59. Sometimes in the waves of change we find our true direction.
60. Let the sea set you free.
61. High tides. Good vibes.
62. All I need is a good dose of vitamin sea.
63. If there’s a will there’s a wave.
64. Retirement Plan: Sell seashells by the seashore.
65. A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor.
66. Seas the day!
67. You, me and the sea.
68. Long time no sea .
69. Sea you soon!
70. I need to be seahabilitated.
71. Shell-abrate good times.
72. “We got no troubles, Life is the Bubbles, Under the Sea”– The Little Mermaid, “Under the Sea”
73. The sea calls to me.
74. Wild and free just like the sea.
75. Sea la vie!
76. “See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me. And no one knows, how far it goes.” – Moana, “How Far I’ll Go”
77. I was mermaid for this sea-sun.
78. Life is simple: just add water.
79. Me and the ocean: Love at first sight.
80. Thalassophile (n) A lover of the sea, someone who loves the sea/ocean.
Get a beautiful digital print on Etsy!
What were your favorite sea quotes and sea captions on this list? If you have your own favorite sea beach quotes, captions for the sea, sea breeze quotes, or seaside quotes, please share them in the comments below. And don’t forget to check out some of my other posts!
30 Best Beach Quotes You Need to Read
22 Awesome Vacation Quotes You Need to Read
25 Most Inspiring Quotes for Travel With Friends
70 Greece Quotes & Captions You Should Read NOW
The Best Water Shoes for Rocky Beaches: Men, Women, and Kids Edition!
BONUS: if you’ve never used Airbnb, get a $40 credit by clicking here for a coupon!
There’s no denying it. Thinking about and dreaming of the ocean brings us both joy and calmness, and truly soothes the soul.
In times of stress, we turn to the ocean for it’s for words of wisdom, spoken through inspiring quotes and sayings.
These ocean and sea quotes remind us of our strength and resilience, and our love and vulnerabilities. They help us to weather tough times and challenges, knowing calmer seas will soon replace the storm.
Encouraging Ocean Quotes for Sea and Beach Lovers
If you enjoy the images for these ocean quotes and sayings, you’re welcome to use the images, provided you link to this post directly and credit this website, lifewellcruised.com.
As always, please feel free to PIN and save to your favorite Pinterest board, for inspiration.
Here are 25 ocean quotes that inspire us, and I hope will inspire you too
1. “The sea does not like to be restrained”
Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
2. “We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected on the deep.”
William James
3. “The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too”
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
4. “To reach a port we must set sail. Sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
5. “Together we can face challenges as deep as the ocean and as high as the sky”
Sonia Gandhi
6. “We ourselves feel what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”
Mother Teresa
7. “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
Ryunosuke Satoro
8. “There’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.”
Sarah Kay
9. “Dance with the waves, move with the sea, let the rhythm of the water set your soul free.”
Christy Ann Martine
10. “Life is like the ocean, it goes up and down.”
Vanessa Paradis
11. “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”
Jacques Cousteau
12. “We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.”
John F. Kennedy
13. “The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.”
Robert Wylan
14. “If the ocean can calm itself, so can you. We are both salt water mixed with air”
Nayyirah Waheed
15. “The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.”
Isak Dinesen
16. “There must be something strangely sacred in salt. It is in our tears and in the sea.”
Khalil Gibran
17. “Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.”
Robert Henri
18. “If you want to hear the distant voice of the ocean put your ear to the distant lips of a seashell”
Curtis Tyrone Jones
19. “You will love the ocean. It makes you feel small, but not in a bad way. Small because you realize you’re part of something bigger.”
Lauren Myracle
20. “Water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing, in the end, can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone.”
Margaret Atwood
21. “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always our self we find in the sea.”
E.E. Cummings
22. “Let the waves carry you where the light can not.”
Mohit Kaushik
23. “The sea has boundless patience.”
Craig Robertson
24. “With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live.
Sylvie Earle
25. “The sea will grant each man new hope, and sleep will bring dreams of home…”
Christopher Columbus
26. “In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.”
Kahlil Gibran
27. “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
28. “The sea lives in every one of us.”
Robert Wyland
29. “I wanted freedom, open air and adventure. I found it on the sea.”
Alain Gerbeault
More inspiring quotes:
25 Inspirational Cruise Travel Quotes That Will Have You Dreaming
50 Inspirational Beach Quotes for Those that Love the Sea
25 Rick Steves Travel Quotes and Travel Books that Will Inspire You
Whether we are anxious and need to feel calm, feeling blue and long to be happy, feeling vulnerable and need reminding of our strength, thoughts of the ocean brings this into our heart and soul.
If you love the beach and ocean, I hope that you’ve enjoyed these quotes and have found some inspiration.
Please leave any other favorite quotes about the ocean, sea and the beach in the comments below.
Ilana xoxo
P.S. Thanks for reading – if you’ve enjoyed this post, please share on Facebook or Pinterest, so others can benefit as well.
Let’s connect:
Follow me on Facebook at Life Well Cruised
Follow me onYouTube at Life Well Cruised (Vlogs and cruise tips)
Follow me on Pinterest at Life Well Cruised
Follow me on Instagram at Life Well Cruised
Soft sand, rolling waves, and endless sunshine. What’s not to love?
From island hopping in the Philippines to learning to surf in Nicaragua and finding hidden coves in the Dominican Republic, seaside vacations have always been some of my favorite breaks.
They are good for your mind, body and soul, but it’s sometimes tough to find the perfect words to capture your emotions.
So if you’re looking for some awesome sea quotes for Instagram, you’ve come to the right place.
I’ve spent hours compiling the most comprehensive list of the best sea captions you’ll find online, from funny sea puns to romantic sea quotes – these sayings are guaranteed to get you in that summer mood and smiling.
You may also like these related posts:
- Best Beach Captions for Instagram
- Top Summer Quotes and Sayings
- Top Sunrise Quotes and Captions
- Best Sunset Captions, Puns and Sayings
Best Ocean Puns
Seas the day.
I’ve never been more shore of myself
My favorite day is a sea day.
I was mermaid for this sea-sun.
Call me on my shell phone
Top Sea Puns for Instagram
Do you sea what I sea?
Happiness comes in waves
Long time no sea.
Yeah, buoy. It’s currently ocean time
Today, I decided to make waves.
Short Caption about Sea for Instagram
Having a sea-esta
Sea la vie
Where there’s a will, there’s a wave.
Shell-abrate good times.
Lost at sea? I’m not shore.
Puns about the Ocean
Now that I am by the water I can sea clearly.
Sea you soon
I need to be seahabilitated
I shore do love this view.
I can sea clearly now.
Funny Sea Quotes for Instagram
The ocean and I are o-fish-ally best friends forever.
I’m diving to get back to the ocean
Hanging with my gull-friends by the ocean
Quitting my job to be a full-time mermaid
Just like the ocean, I can be a little salty
Instagram Captions for Sea Pictures
I don’t need a DNA test to prove I’m part mermaid
The ocean was waving, so I waved back
Doing my best Ariel from ‘The Little Mermaid’ impression today
Retirement Plan: Sell seashells by the seashore
Sally sounds like she’s living her best life. I would also like to sell seashells by the seashore.
Short Sea Captions for Instagram
Happier than a seagull with a French fry.
Let the sea set you free.
I’m a true oceanholic.
Take me to the sea
The sea is mesmerizing me.
Instagram Captions on Sea
Finding comfort in the rhythm of the sea.
It’s time for the sun, sea and sand.
My dreams are made of sand and sea.
Happiness is..blue sea and white sand.
Wild and free just like the sea
Short Quotes from the Sea
The ocean is calling
High tides. Good vibes.
Saltwater cures all wounds.
Life is simple: just add water
‘Tis the sea-sun to make waves.
Romantic Quotes about the Ocean
You, the ocean, and me
You’re the only fish in the sea for me.
I love you like the sea loves the shore.
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.“– Ryunosuke Akutagawa
The ocean has my heart
“In high tide or in low tide, I’ll be by your side.” – Bob Marley
I love you more than there are grains of sand on the beach, fish in the sea, waves in the ocean.
Me and the ocean: Love at first sight
Let’s go somewhere the sun kisses the sea.
You, me, and the sea.
Love you to the sea and back.
Sea Lover Quotes
Our love is as deep as the ocean
You and me, as far as the eye can sea.
You will find that endless sea, and that’s how my love will always be
Live by the sea and love by the moon.
I followed my heart and it led me to the sea.
Vitamin Sea Quotes
Getting my daily dose of Vitamin Sea.
All you need is a good dose of vitamin sea.
I need vitamin sea.
Life is better with vitamin sea
I think I need some vitamin sea.
Beautiful Quotes from the Sea
We dream in colors borrowed from the sea.
I can leave the sea but the sea never leaves me.
“Eternity begins and ends with the ocean’s tides.”
Sun, Sea, the Sand and ME
Happiness is the sunset and the sea
Captions Related to Sea
The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.
“The sea is a desert of waves, A wilderness of water.”– Langston Hughes
“The ocean is a mighty harmonist”– William Wordsworth
I want to be wild, beautiful, and free. Just like the sea.
“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.” –Kahlil Gibran
Ocean Inspirational Quotes
“A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind.” – Webb Chiles
“Smell the sea and feel the sky, let your soul and spirit fly”– Van Morrison
“Let the waves carry you where the light can not”– Mohit Kaushik
“The sea has boundless patience.” – Craig Robertson
“Dance with the waves, move with the sea. Let the rhythm of the water set your soul free.” –Christy Ann Martine
Sea Captions Instagram
Dear ocean, thank you for making us feel tiny, humble, inspired, and salty all at once
Ocean air, salty hair
“The sea appears all golden. Beneath the sun-lit sky.” – Heinrich Heine
“To me, the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim–the rocks–the motion of the waves–the ships, with men in them, What stranger miracles are there?” – Walt Whitman
“Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.” – Sarah Kay
Sea Beach Quotes
B.E.A.C.H: Best escape anyone can have
Beachology. Be shore of yourself. Don’t be crabby. Let your worries drift away. Drown out pier pressure. Soak up positive energy. Seas life’s moments.
Everyone should believe in something. I believe I should go to the beach.
You can find me where the beach meets the sea.
Friends, Sun, Sand and Sea that sounds like a summer to me
Beach Ocean Quotes Instagram
You can find me where the sand meets the water.
Happiness is the sand between the toes and the sea around your ankles.
I’m happiest laying on the sand looking at the sea.
The memories will last forever… just like the sand at the bottom of my bag.
Let the waves hit your feet and sand be your seat.
Ocean Waves Quotes
“The waves of the sea help me get back to me.” —Jill Davis
Let the waves of the sea be my therapy.
“Life is like the ocean, it goes up and down“ – Vanessa Paradis
I like to let the sea waves take me where they want me to go.
“You’re not a wave, you’re a part of the ocean.” — Mitch Albom
Best Caption for Sea Waves
“The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.” – Vladimir Nabokov
Sometimes in the waves of change, we find our true direction
“Wild waves rise and fall when they arrive. And that’s what makes the calm sea alive.” – Munia Khan
“I spent uncounted hours sitting at the bow looking at the water and the sky, studying each wave, different from the last, seeing how it caught the light, the air, the wind; watching patterns, the sweep of it all, and letting it take me. The sea.” – Gary Paulsen
Quotes about the Sea
The best days are sea days.
I like to let the ocean take me where I’m supposed to go
Friends, Sun, Sand and Sea, that sounds like a summer to me.
“Rough seas make stronger sailors. Tough times build greater people.” – Robin Sharma
“The oceans roar is music to the soul.”
Short Sea Quotes Instagram
“Follow the river and you will find the sea.” – French Proverb
Salty like the ocean
“The sea is an underwater museum still awaiting its visitors.” – Phillip Diole
“The sea is in my blood as much as you are in my heart, and as much as god is in my soul.” – Anthony T. Hincks
“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly Ocean.”– Arthur C. Clarke
Top Quotes for the Ocean
Dear ocean, feel free to take the spotlight in my selfies any day.
“I’m pretty sure my birthstone is a sea shell.”
“The sound and smell of the sea cleanses my soul.”
“Only you could have won me away from the sea. I came back from the ends of the earth for you.” – George R.R. Martin
“The sea is as near as we come to another world.” – Anne Stevenson
Ocean Captions for Instagram
Smell the sea, Feel the breeze, Hear the ocean, Be at ease
“The sea does not like to be restrained” – Rick Riordan
Being in the ocean is like getting a hug from all sides
“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.” – Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen)
“The sea lives in every one of us.” – Robert Wyland
Sky and Sea Captions for Instagram
“See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me. And no one knows, how far it goes.” –Moana
“How foolish to believe we are more powerful than the sea or the sky.”– Ruta Sepetys
“The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.” – Jacques Yves Cousteau
“Life is a sea of vibrant color. Jump in.” – A.D. Posey
Inspirational Ocean Quotes
“Life is as inexorable as the sea.” – Thomas Wentworth Higginson
“A rising tide lifts all boats”– Sean Lemass
“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”– Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” —Jacques Cousteau
Sea Love Quotes
“The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths, it has its pearls too.” — Vincent van Gogh
“I wanted freedom, open air and adventure. I found it on the sea.” – Alain Gerbeault
“Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.” – Robert Henri
“The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.” — Robert Wyland
“My soul is full of longing for the secret of the sea, and the heart of the great ocean sends a thrilling pulse through me.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“There’s nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you’ve been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent.” — Dave Barry
Ocean Quotes for Instagram
“A beach is not only a sweep of sand, but shells of sea creatures, the sea glass, the seaweed, the incongruous objects washed up by the ocean.” – Henry Grunwald
“The ocean makes me feel really small and it makes me put my whole life into perspective.” — Beyoncé Knowles
“And the sea will grant each man new hope, as sleep brings dreams of home.” — Larry Ferguson
“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient … One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach—waiting for a gift from the sea.” — Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
Quotes about Sea and Love
“But where, after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves?” — Joshua Slocum
“At night, when the sky is full of stars and the sea is still you get the wonderful sensation that you are floating in space.” – Natalie Wood
“She loves the serene brutality of the ocean, loves the electric power she felt with each breath of wet, briny air.” – Holly Black
“The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.” – Rachel Carson
“You can never cross the ocean until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Christopher Columbus
“The calming movement of the sea along with the restless ocean breeze gently caresses me creating a soothing trance which lulls me to a place of peace.” — M. L. Borges
Best Sea Caption for Instagram
“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” – Mother Teresa
“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.” — Kate Chopin
“We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.” — Aristotle Onassis
“I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of the untainted, fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought.” – Helen Keller
“The ocean is a central image. It is the symbolism of a great journey.”
Sea Beach Quotes
“On the beach, you can live in bliss.”
“I wish that Beach Therapy was covered by my Health Insurance.”
“To go out with the setting sun on an empty beach is to truly embrace your solitude.”
“To escape and sit quietly on the beach – that’s my idea of paradise.” – Emilia Wickstead
I like to let the waves kiss my feet, while using the sand as my seat
Sea Related Captions
“Good times and tan lines.”
We’re all about the Palm Trees and 80 degrees.
“There must be something strangely sacred in salt. It is in our tears and in the sea.” – Kahlil Gibran
“The sea! the sea! the open sea!, The blue, the fresh, the ever free!” — Bryan W. Procter
“Take me to the ocean. Let me sail the open sea. To breathe the warm and salty air and dream of things to be.” – Erica Billups
Best Caption Sea
“The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.” – Martin Luther King
“On the beach, you can live in bliss.”- Dennis Wilson
“If there’s heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached to it.” –Jimmy Buffett
“I miss being on beach vacation and never knowing what day of the week it is.”
Having a whale of a time
That’s 200 Instagram Captions about Sea
I hope you’ve managed to find the perfect ocean quote, I’d love to know which one is your favorite, and if I’ve missed any great sea instagram captions then please let me know in the comments below.
Love inspirational quotes and captions?
Check out these travel quotes to motivate you to book your next adventure.
- Beach Quotes and Sayings
- Sunrise Captions for Instagram
- Sunset Quotes and Captions
- Waterfall Quotes
- Summer Quotes
- Solo Travel Quotes
- Road Trip Quotes
- Quotes about Exploration
- Best Nature Quotes
- Mountain Quotes
- Hiking Quotes
- Outdoor Quotes
- Travel with Friends Quotes
- Funny Travel Quotes
- If you like visuals check out my Pinterest board dedicated to Quotes and Captions.
Save By The Sea Quotes to Pinterest for Later
Are you inspired by the ocean? Gazing out to sea, sailing, or just spending a lazy day on the beach can be such a magical experience. Here are my 40 favorite ocean quotes to inspire you to spend some time out on the water.
Listen to this article
These ocean quotes about the sea range from short to long, inspirational to funny (and everything in between!), so I’m sure you’ll find a quote that you love. I’ve illustrated each of these ocean quotes with a beautiful photo of the sea, perfect to save to your ocean Pinterest board.
I hope you enjoy these quotes as much as I do. Use your favorites for scrapbooking, journaling, and Instagram captions, or just for inspiration to keep looking to the horizon.
Please feel free to save any of my ocean quotes images to use on your own website or social media. Just be sure to credit Should Be Cruising and link back to this page. Thanks!
1. “Smell the sea and feel the sky. Let your soul and spirit fly.” — Van Morrison
Sir George Ivan Morrison (1945-) is a Grammy Award-winning Northern Irish singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and producer. This ocean quote is from the lyrics to Into the Mystic, from his 1970 album Moondance.
2. “Dance with the waves, move with the sea. Let the rhythm of the water set your soul free.” — Christy Ann Martine
One of my favorite ocean quotes, these lines are by Christy Ann Martine Zutautas (1972-), a Canadian poet and writer. This quote about the ocean is from her short poem, Dance With The Waves, written in 2017.
3. “The sea is an underwater museum still awaiting its visitors.” — Philippe Diolé
Philippe Victor Diolé (1908-1977) was a French author and undersea explorer, best known for co-authoring seven of the 8-volume series The Undersea Discoveries of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
4. “The sea always filled her with longing, though for what she was never sure.” — Cornelia Funke
Cornelia Maria Funke (1958-) is a German author and illustrator of children’s fiction. This ocean quote is from her 2003 young adult fantasy novel Inkheart, the first in a trilogy of the same name.
5. “My soul is full of longing for the secret of the sea, and the heart of the great ocean sends a thrilling pulse through me.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) was an American poet and educator. One of the “fireside poets” from New England, Longfellow was the most popular American poet of his day. This quote about the sea is from his poem The Secret of the Sea, included in his 1850 book of poetry The Seaside and the Fireside.
6. “Take me to the ocean. Let me sail the open sea. To breathe the warm and salty air and dream of things to be.” — Erica Billups
Erica Billups is an Atlanta-based poet, artist, and blogger. She’s the owner and lead artist at Liberty & Lilac Paper Co, and the author of this favorite ocean quote.
7. “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” — Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a Bengali writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, painter, and one of India’s greatest poets. He was the first Asian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1913. This inspirational ocean quote is from his 1910 mystic play The King Of The Dark Chamber.
8. if the ocean can calm itself, so can you. we are both salt water mixed with air.” — Nayyirah Waheed
Reclusive poet and writer Nayyirah Waheed has been called “perhaps the most famous poet on Instagram” by Jet. She’s published two books of her minimalist poetry—this ocean quote is from her 2013 debut volume entitled salt.
9. “The sea appears all golden, Beneath the sun-lit sky.” — Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) was a German poet, writer, and literary critic. Heine is perhaps best known for his early lyric poems, many of which were set to music by composers including Schubert and Schumann. His quote about the sea comes from his romantic poem Seraphina, published in his 1827 Book of Songs.
10. “The sea does not like to be restrained.” — Rick Riordan
Richard Russell Riordan Jr. (1964-) is an American author best known for writing the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, about a teenager who discovers he’s the son of the Greek god Poseidon. This sea quote is from his 2005 novel The Lightning Thief, the first book in the series.
11. “To me the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—the ships with men in them; What stranger miracles are there?” — Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (1819–1892) was an American humanist poet, essayist, and journalist. Whitman is one of the most influential American poets and is often called the father of free verse. His ocean quote is from the poem Miracles, first published in his 1856 volume Leaves of Grass.
12. “That the sea is one of the most beautiful and magnificent sights in Nature, all admit.” — John Joly
John Joly (1857–1933) was an Irish physicist, professor of geology, and inventor, most famous for his development of radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer. Joly also developed the Joly color screen, the first successful process for producing color photographs from a single plate.
13. “The sea is a desert of waves, A wilderness of water.” — Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (1901–1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. A leader of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes was also an early innovator of jazz poetry. This ocean quote is from his poem Long Trip.
14. “To me, the sea is like a person — like a child that I’ve known a long time. It sounds crazy, I know, but when I swim in the sea I talk to it. I never feel alone when I’m out there.” — Gertrude Ederle
Gertrude Caroline Ederle (1905–2003) was an American competition swimmer known as the “Queen of the Waves”. Ederle was an Olympic champion, former world record-holder in five events, and in 1926 became the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
15. “And the sea will grant each man new hope, as sleep brings dreams of home.” — Larry Ferguson
Larry Ferguson is an American screenwriter and film director whose film credits include Highlander, Beverly Hills Cop II, and Alien 3. Although this sea quote is commonly misattributed to Christopher Columbus, Ferguson actually penned the words, delivered by Sean Connery at the end of the film The Hunt for Red October.
16. “With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live.” — Sylvia Earle
Dr. Sylvia Alice Earle (1935-) is an American marine biologist, oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer. Earle was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Since 1988, she’s been a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, and is also part of Ocean Elders, a group dedicated to protecting the ocean and its wildlife.
17. “Wouldst thou … learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers, comprehend its mystery!” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) was an American poet and educator. This quote about the ocean is from his poem The Secret of the Sea. It’s often misquoted as “Would you learn the secret of the sea?”, but the original line was “Wouldst thou, —so the helmsman answered; Learn the secret of the sea?”.
18. “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always ourselves we find in the sea” — E. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings (1894–1962) was an American modernist poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. This ocean quote comes from his 1956 poem maggie and milly and molly and may.
19. “The sea possesses a power over one’s moods that has the effect of a will. The sea can hypnotize. Nature in general can do so.” — Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828–1906) was a Norwegian modernist playwright and theatre director, often referred to as the “father of realism”. After Shakespeare, Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world. This sea quote is from his 1888 play The Lady from the Sea.
20. “There’s nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you’ve been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent.” — Dave Barry
David McAlister Barry (1947-) is an American author and columnist. From 1983 until 2005, Barry wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald. He’s also written many books of humor and parody and several comic novels.
21. “How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly Ocean.” — Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (1917–2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television host. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the most influential films of all time. During the 1980s he hosted several television shows, including Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World.
22. “We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came…” — John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963) was an American politician and the 35th president of the United States. As a young man, JFK and his family spent summers at their Cape Cod home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, where he enjoyed sailing and swimming in the ocean. This ocean quote is from Kennedy’s speech given at the dinner for the America’s Cup crews on September 14, 1962.
23. “Limitless and immortal, the waters are the beginning and end of all things on earth.” — Heinrich Zimmer
Heinrich Robert Zimmer (1890–1943) was a German Indologist, linguist, and historian of South Asian art, Zimmer is best known for his works Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization and Philosophies of India. He was one of the most important German scholars in Indian philology.
24. “The ocean makes me feel really small and it makes me put my whole life into perspective.” — Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (1981-) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She’s one of the world’s best-selling recording artists, and was the first artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 with their first six solo studio albums. In 2020, Beyoncé was included on Time‘s list of 100 women who defined the last century.
25. “The ocean has always been a salve to my soul…the best thing for a cut or abrasion was to go swimming in salt water. Later down the road of life, I made the discovery that salt water was also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land.” — Jimmy Buffett
James William Buffett (1946-) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, actor, and businessman. Best known for his island-escapist music, Buffett is also a bestselling author as well as the owner of the Margaritaville restaurant chain. This ocean quote is from his 1988 autobiography A Pirate Looks at Fifty.
26. “In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.” — Kahlil Gibran
Gibran Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, and visual artist. Gibran is best known for his 1923 inspirational fiction work The Prophet, one of the best-selling books of all time. This quote about the ocean is translated from his 1921 Arabic-language play Iram, City of Lofty Pillars.
27. “The calming movement of the sea along with the restless ocean breeze gently caresses me creating a soothing trance which lulls me to a place of peace.” — M. L. Borges
M. L. Borges is a visual artist, poet, and author who writes in various genres, including mystery and romance. This quote about the ocean is from By The Sea, a 2013 collection of paintings and quotes.
28. “We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.” — Aristotle Onassis
Aristotle Socrates Onassis (1906–1975) was a Greek shipping magnate. He owned the world’s largest privately-owned shipping fleet at the time and was one of the world’s richest men. Onassis was well known for marrying former US first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, leading to her nickname of “Jackie O”.
29. “The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient … One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach—waiting for a gift from the sea.” — Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) was an American author and aviator. She was the wife of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, and they made many exploratory flights together. This sea quote is from her 1955 book Gift from the Sea, an inspirational volume for women that foreshadowed the green movement.
30. “They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.” — Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (1561–1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General, as temporary Regent of England (for a month in 1617), and later as Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon was an influential figure during the scientific revolution, and his works helped develop the scientific method.
31. “The sea lives in every one of us.” — Robert Wyland
Robert Wyland (1956-), known simply as Wyland, is an American artist and conservationist best known for his Whaling Walls, a series of over 100 large outdoor murals featuring life-size images of whales and other sea creatures.
Fun fact for cruise fans: Wyland designed and painted a massive mural on the hull of Norwegian Cruise Line‘s Norwegian Bliss, launched in 2018, featuring images of his trademark life-sized whales.
32. “But where, after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves?” — Joshua Slocum
Joshua Slocum (1844–1909) was a Canadian-American writer, sailor, and adventurer. The first person to sail single-handedly around the world, he wrote a book in 1900, Sailing Alone Around the World, about his journey aboard his sloop the Spray. The book—where this ocean quote is taken from—was an international best-seller. Slocum disappeared in November 1909 while aboard his boat and was presumed lost at sea.
33. “Great sea captains are made in rough waters and deep seas.” — Kathryn Kuhlman
Kathryn Kuhlman (1907–1976) was an American evangelist known for hosting healing services. She traveled the US extensively and around the world between the 1940s and 1970s, holding “healing crusades”. In the 60s and 70s, Kuhlman hosted I Believe In Miracles, a weekly television program that was aired nationally in the United States.
34. “The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.” — Martin Luther
Martin Luther (1483–1546) was a German professor of theology, priest, author, composer, Augustinian monk, and an important figure in the Protestant Reformation. This ocean quote comes from the preface to his 1545 Commentary on the Psalms. This quote is often misattributed to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s.
35. “What world lies beyond that stormy sea I do not know, but every ocean has a distant shore, and I shall reach it.” — Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) was an Italian novelist, poet, essayist, short story writer, translator, and literary critic. Although he destroyed many of his personal papers before his death, his diaries (which include this quote) remain and were published as This Business of Living: Diaries 1935-1950.
36. “The sea is as near as we come to another world.” — Anne Stevenson
Anne Stevenson (1933–2020) was an American-British poet and writer. Stevenson was the author of over a dozen volumes of poetry, books of essays, and literary criticism. In 2007, she was awarded the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award for Poetry, and the Poetry Foundation’s Neglected Masters Award. This ocean quote is from her 1977 poem North Sea off Carnoustie.
37. “As the sea is beautiful not only in calm but also in storm, so is happiness found not only in peace but also in strife.” — Ivan Panin
Ivan Nikolayevich Panin (1855–1942) was a Russian writer and lecturer. After his exile from Russia, Panin emigrated first to Germany and then to the US. Today Panin is best known for claiming to discover numerical patterns in the text of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles. This sea quote is included in his 1899 book, Thoughts.
38. “The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.” — Kate Chopin
Katherine O’Flaherty Chopin (1850–1904) was an American short story writer and novelist. Chopin is one of the most frequently read and recognized writers of Louisiana Creole heritage. This ocean quote is from The Awakening, her second novel.
39. “The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths, it has its pearls too.” — Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853–1890) was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who became one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. This inspirational ocean quote is from The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, a collection of over 900 of his personal letters and related manuscripts.
40. “The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.” — Robert Wyland
Robert Wyland (1956-), known simply as Wyland, is an American artist and conservationist best known for his Whaling Walls, a series of over 100 large outdoor murals featuring life-size images of whales and other sea creatures.
For more inspiring quotes and captions about the sea and sailing, be sure to check out:
- 80+ Perfect Ocean and Sea Captions for Instagram
- 22 Inspirational Cruise Travel Quotes (With Photos)
- 150+ Perfect Beach Captions for Instagram
Pin this for later!
What are your favorite ocean quotes? Is there one I listed that speaks to you, or do you have another quote about the sea that inspires you? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
- Author
- Recent Posts
Carrie Ann is the founder of Should Be Cruising and a lifelong travel fanatic. A former flight attendant, she now prefers cruise ships over airplanes and spends several months each year cruising and exploring cruise ports. Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
На чтение 9 мин. Просмотров 52.2k.
Легкий утренний бриз играет с волосами. Тихие гудки парохода слышно где-то издалека. Чайки кружат над высокими неприступными скалами, а обитатели глубин пробуждается ото сна. Море. Неизвестное и превосходное.
Множество писателей были очарована морем, его неприступным величием. Море – это всегда что-то знакомое, но давно забытое. Такое пленительное и пугающее своей неизведанностью одновременно. Жизнь возле моря напоминает дикую кошку: никогда не знаешь, что от нее ожидать. Предлагаем вам ознакомиться с нашей подборкой цитат про море на английском языке. Все они переведены на русский язык.
You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.
Вы не сможете покорить море, пока будете стоять и смотреть на волны. Рабиндранат Тагор
We can’t direct the wind but we can adjust the sail.
Мы не можем управлять ветром, зато можем управлять парусами.
Долли Партон
Anybody can pilot a ship when the sea is calm.
Любой может управлять кораблем, когда море спокойно. Нэвджот Сингх Сидху
The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.
Голос моря говорит с душой. Кейт Шопен
Don’t sit and wait. Get out there, feel life. Touch the sun, and immerse in the sea.
Не сиди и жди. Вон там, почувствуй жизнь. Прикоснитесь к солнцу и погрузитесь в море. Руми
I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.
Я снова почувствовал, насколько простым и скромным является счастье: бокал вина, жареный каштан, жалкий жаровня, шум моря. Ничего больше. Никос Казандзакис, греческий Зорба
Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
Люди выезжают за границу, чтобы удивляться высоте гор, огромным волнам моря, длинным руслам рек, огромному компасу океана, круговым движениям звезд, и они проходят мимо, не задумываясь.Святой Августин
The sea always filled her with longing, though for what she was never sure.
Море всегда наполняло ее тоской, хотя она никогда не была в этом уверена. Корнелия Функе, Чернильное сердце
Hark, now hear the sailors cry – smell the sea, and feel the sky – let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic. Van Morrison
Слушай, теперь послушай, как плачут моряки, почувствуй запах моря и почувствуй небо, пусть твоя душа и дух летят в мистика. Ван Моррисон
The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.
Море никогда не было дружелюбным к человеку. В лучшем случае это был соучастник человеческого беспокойства. Джозеф Конрад, писатель
The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.
Море, как только оно накладывает свое заклинание, навсегда удерживает его в своей сети чудес. Жак Ив Кусто
To me the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim, the rocks, the motion of the waves, the ships with men in them. What stranger miracles are there?
Для меня море – это постоянное чудо; Рыбы, которые плавают, камни, движение волн, корабли с людьми в них. Какие странные чудеса есть? Уолт Уитмен
Ocean: a body of water occupying two-thirds of a world made for man who has no gills.
Океан: масса воды, занимающая две трети мира, созданная для человека, у которого нет жабр. Амброз Бирс
The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper; I cannot quite make it out.
Море произносит что-то снова и снова хриплым шепотом; Я не могу понять это. Энни Диллард
Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.
Почему мы любим море? Это потому, что оно обладает некоторой мощной силой, чтобы заставить нас думать то, что нам нравится думать. Роберт Анри
The sea is as near as we come to another world.
Море так близко, как мы приходим в другой мир. Энн Стивенсон
The sea is more than we see, for she gives us most of the oxygen in our lungs. she wraps her brine around every limb as a mother, only ever asking for our respect and loving care.
Море – это больше, чем мы видим, потому что она дает нам большую часть кислорода в наших легких. как мать, она оборачивает свой рассол вокруг каждой конечности, только когда-либо прося нашего уважения и любящей заботы.
You couldn’t tell where the grey skies ended and the grey seas began. Grey clouds swirled in a tumult of stormy air above, blue-grey waves swirled below, crashing into the side of the iron-grey ship. Grey faces tinged with green staggered about the decks on bandy legs as the ship rocked in great figures of eight.
Вы не могли сказать, где кончалось серое небо и начиналось серое море. Серые облака кружились в штормовом воздухе над головой, серо-голубые волны кружились внизу, врезаясь в борт серо-железного корабля. Серые лица, окрашенные в зеленый цвет, шатались по палубам на хоккейных ногах, когда корабль качался в огромных восьмёрках.
The sea hath fish for every man.
Море имеет рыбу для каждого человека.
With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live.
С каждой каплей воды, которую вы пьете, с каждым вздохом, вы связаны с морем. Неважно, где на Земле ты живешь.
Сильвия Эрл
A long sea implies an uniform and steady motion of long and extensive waves; on the contrary, a short sea is when they run irregularly, broken, and interrupted; so as frequently to burst over a vessel’s side or quarter.
Длинное море подразумевает равномерное и устойчивое движение длинных и протяженных волн; напротив, короткое море – это когда они бегут нерегулярно, разбиты и прерываются; так часто, чтобы лопнуть через борт судна или четверть.
Wine hath drowned more men than the sea.
Вино потопило больше людей, чем море.
It is the simplest things in life that hold the most wonder; the color of the sea, the sand between your toes, the laughter of a child.
Это самые простые вещи в жизни, которые держат больше всего удивления; цвет моря , песок между пальцами ног, смех ребенка. Голди Хоун
You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.
Вы не можете пересечь море, просто стоя и глядя на воду.
Meet me where the sky touches the sea. Wait for me where the world begins.
Встреть меня там, где небо касается моря. Жди меня там, где начинается мир. Jennifer Donnelly
Water adopts the shape of its receptacle, it is sometimes a trickle and sometimes a wild sea.
Вода принимает форму своего сосуда, иногда это струйка, а иногда дикое море.
Here are the 43 best handpicked poems about the ocean categorized:
- Famous poems about the ocean
- Poems about the ocean and life
- Poems about the ocean and love
- Poems about the ocean and death
- Beautiful short poems about the ocean
- Ocean poems that rhyme
- Short poems about the sea and love
So if you want the best collection of ocean poems, then you’re in the right place.
Keep reading!
Immerse yourself in the awe-inspiring beauty and power of the ocean through the best poems about this natural wonder, all conveniently located in one place.
From classic works by famous poets that capture the majesty and mystery of the sea to short and sweet pieces that evoke the sights, sounds, and emotions of the ocean, you’ll find them all here.
Whether you’re seeking inspiration, solace, or simply a deeper connection to the natural world, the best poems about the ocean are sure to leave you moved and transported.
My Favorite Poem About the Ocean
The Ocean
by Nathaniel HawthorneThe Ocean has its silent caves,
Deep, quiet, and alone;
Though there be fury on the waves,
Beneath them there is none.The awful spirits of the deep
Hold their communion there;
And there are those for whom we weep,
The young, the bright, the fair.Calmly the wearied seamen rest
Beneath their own blue sea.
The ocean solitudes are blest,
For there is purity.The earth has guilt, the earth has care,
Unquiet are its graves;
But peaceful sleep is ever there,
Beneath the dark blue waves.
Famous Poems About the Ocean
The Sea of Sunset
by Emily Elizabeth DickinsonThis is the land the sunset washes,
These are the banks of the Yellow Sea;
Where it rose, or whither it rushes,
These are the western mystery!Night after night her purple traffic
Strews the landing with opal bales;
Merchantmen poise upon horizons,
Dip, and vanish with fairy sails.
By the Sea
by Emily DickinsonI started early, took my dog,
And visited the sea;
The mermaids in the basement
Came out to look at me.And frigates in the upper floor
Extended hempen hands,
Presuming me to be a mouse
Aground, upon the sands.But no man moved me till the tide
Went past my simple shoe,
And past my apron and my belt,
And past my bodice too,And made as he would eat me up
As wholly as a dew
Upon a dandelion’s sleeve –
And then I started too.And he – he followed close behind;
I felt his silver heel
Upon my ankle, – then my shoes
Would overflow with pearl.Until we met the solid town,
No man he seemed to know;
And bowing with a mighty look
At me, the sea withdrew.
A Life on the Ocean Wave
by Epes SargentA life on the ocean wave,
A home on the rolling deep;
Where the scattered waters rave,
And the winds their revels keep!
Like an eagle caged I pine
On this dull, unchanging shore:
O, give me the flashing brine,
The spray and the tempest’s roar!Once more on the deck I stand,
Of my own swift-gliding craft:
Set sail! farewell to the land;
The gale follows fair abaft.
We shoot through the sparkling foam,
Like an ocean-bird set free,—
Like the ocean-bird, our home
We ’ll find far out on the sea.The land is no longer in view,
The clouds have begun to frown;
But with a stout vessel and crew,
We ’ll say, Let the storm come down!
And the song of our hearts shall be,
While the winds and the waters rave,
A home on the rolling sea!
A life on the ocean wave!
Sail Away
by Rabindranath TagoreEarly in the day it was whispered that we should sail in a boat,
only thou and I, and never a soul in the world would know of this our
pilgrimage to no country and to no end.In that shoreless ocean,
at thy silently listening smile my songs would swell in melodies,
free as waves, free from all bondage of words.Is the time not come yet?
Are there works still to do?
Lo, the evening has come down upon the shore
and in the fading light the seabirds come flying to their nests.Who knows when the chains will be off,
and the boat, like the last glimmer of sunset,
vanish into the night?
John Marr and Other Sailors
by Herman MelvilleSince as in night’s deck-watch ye show,
Why, lads, so silent here to me,
Your watchmate of times long ago?
Once, for all the darkling sea,
You your voices raised how clearly,
Striking in when tempest sung;
Hoisting up the storm-sail cheerly,
Life is storm–let storm! you rung.
Taking things as fated merely,
Childlike though the world ye spanned;
Nor holding unto life too dearly,
Ye who held your lives in hand–
Skimmers, who on oceans four
Petrels were, and larks ashore.O, not from memory lightly flung,
Forgot, like strains no more availing,
The heart to music haughtier strung;
Nay, frequent near me, never staleing,
Whose good feeling kept ye young.
Like tides that enter creek or stream,
Ye come, ye visit me, or seem
Swimming out from seas of faces,
Alien myriads memory traces,
To enfold me in a dream!I yearn as ye. But rafts that strain,
Parted, shall they lock again?
Twined we were, entwined, then riven,
Ever to new embracements driven,
Shifting gulf-weed of the main!
And how if one here shift no more,
Lodged by the flinging surge ashore?
Nor less, as now, in eve’s decline,
Your shadowy fellowship is mine.
Ye float around me, form and feature:–
Tattooings, ear-rings, love-locks curled;
Barbarians of man’s simpler nature,
Unworldly servers of the world.
Yea, present all, and dear to me,
Though shades, or scouring China’s sea.Whither, whither, merchant-sailors,
Whitherward now in roaring gales?
Competing still, ye huntsman-whalers,
In leviathan’s wake what boat prevails?
And man-of-war’s men, whereaway?
If now no dinned drum beat to quarters
On the wilds of midnight waters–
Foemen looming through the spray;
Do yet your gangway lanterns, streaming,
Vainly strive to pierce below,
When, tilted from the slant plank gleaming,
A brother you see to darkness go?But, gunmates lashed in shotted canvas,
If where long watch-below ye keep,
Never the shrill “All hands up hammocks!”
Breaks the spell that charms your sleep,
And summoning trumps might vainly call,
And booming guns implore–
A beat, a heart-beat musters all,
One heart-beat at heart-core.
It musters. But to clasp, retain;
To see you at the halyards main–
To hear your chorus once again!
O Sea, That Knowest Thy Strength
by Effie Lee NewsomeHast thou been known to sing,
O sea, that knowest thy strength?
Hast thou been known to sing?
Thy voice, can it rejoice?
Naught save great sorrowing,
To me, thy sounds incessant
Do express, naught save great sorrowing.
Thy lips, they daily kiss the sand,
In wanton mockery.
Deep in thine awful heart
Thou dost not love the land.
Thou dost not love the land.
O sea, that knowest thy strength.“These sands, these listless, helpless,
Sun-gold sands, I’ll play with these,
Or crush them in my white-fanged hands
For leagues, to please
The thing in me that is the Sea,
Intangible, untamed,
Untamed and wild,
And wild and weird and strong!”
Dover Beach
by Matthew ArnoldThe sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
Fins
by Carl SandburgPlow over bars of sea plowing,
the moon by moon work of the sea,
the plowing, sand and rock, must
be done.Ride over, ride over bars of sea riding,
the sun and the blue riding of the sea—
sit in the saddles and say it, sea riders.Slant up and go, silver breakers; mix
the high howls of your dancing; shoot
your laugh of rainbow foam tops.Foam wings, fly; pick the comers, the fin pink,
the belly green, the blue rain sparks, the
white wave spit—fly, you foam wings.The men of the sea are gone to work; the women
of the sea are off buying new hats, combs, clocks;
it is rust and gold on the roofs of the sea.
The Sea
by Ralph Waldo EmersonBehold the Sea,
The opaline, the plentiful and strong,
Yet beautiful as is the rose in June,
Fresh as the trickling rainbow of July:
Sea full of food, the nourisher of kinds,
Purger of earth, and medicine of men;
Creating a sweet climate by my breath,
Washing out harms and griefs from memory,
And, in my mathematic ebb and flow,
Giving a hint of that which changes not.
Rich are the sea-gods:—who gives gifts but they?
They grope the sea for pearls, but more than pearls:
They pluck Force thence, and give it to the wise.
For every wave is wealth to Dædalus,
Wealth to the cunning artist who can work
This matchless strength. Where shall he find, O waves!
A load your Atlas shoulders cannot lift?
I with my hammer pounding evermore
The rocky coast, smite Andes into dust,
Strewing my bed, and, in another age,
Rebuild a continent of better men.
Then I unbar the doors: my paths lead out
The exodus of nations: I disperse
Men to all shores that front the hoary main.
Poems About the Ocean and Life
The Ocean of Song
by Ella Wheeler WilcoxIn a land beyond sight or conceiving,
In a land where no blight is, no wrong,
No darkness, no graves, and no grieving,
There lies the great ocean of song.
And its waves, oh, its waves unbeholden
By any save gods, and their kind,
Are not blue, are not green, but are golden,
Like moonlight and sunlight combined.It was whispered to me that their waters
Were made from the gathered-up tears
That were wept by the sons and the daughters
Of long-vanished eras and spheres.
Like white sands of heaven the spray is
That falls all the happy day long,
And whoever it touches straightway is
Made glad with the spirit of song.Up, up to the clouds where their hoary
Crowned heads melt away in the skies,
The beautiful mountains of glory
Each side of the song-ocean rise.
Here day is one splendour of sky-light –
Of God’s light with beauty replete.
Here night is not night, but is twilight,
Pervading, enfolding, and sweet.Bright birds from all climes and all regions,
That sing the whole glad summer long,
Are dumb, till they flock here in legions
And lave in the ocean of song.
It is here that the four winds of heaven,
The winds that do sing and rejoice,
It is here they first came and were given
The secret of sound and a voice.Far down along beautiful beeches,
By night and by glorious day,
The throng of the gifted ones reaches,
Their foreheads made white with the spray,
And a few of the sons and the daughters
Of this kingdom, cloud-hidden from sight,
Go down in the wonderful waters,
And bathe in those billows of light.And their souls evermore are like fountains,
And liquid and lucent and strong,
High over the tops of the mountains
Gush up the sweet billows of song.
No drouth-time of waters can dry them.
Whoever has bathed in that sea,
All dangers, all deaths, they defy them,
And are gladder than gods are, with glee.
The Ocean’s Song
by Victor-Marie HugoWe walked amongst the ruins famed in story
Of Rozel-Tower,
And saw the boundless waters stretch in glory
And heave in power.O Ocean vast! We heard thy song with wonder,
Whilst waves marked time.
“Appear, O Truth!” thou sang’st with tone of thunder,
“And shine sublime!“The world’s enslaved and hunted down by beagles,
To despots sold.
Souls of deep thinkers, soar like mighty eagles!
The Right uphold.“Be born! arise! o’er the earth and wild waves bounding,
Peoples and suns!
Let darkness vanish; tocsins be resounding,
And flash, ye guns!“And you who love no pomps of fog or glamour,
Who fear no shocks,
Brave foam and lightning, hurricane and clamour,–
Exiles: the rocks!”
Seaside
by Rupert BrookeSwiftly out from the friendly lilt of the band,
The crowd’s good laughter, the loved eyes of men,
I am drawn nightward; I must turn again
Where, down beyond the low untrodden strand,
There curves and glimmers outward to the unknown
The old unquiet ocean. All the shade
Is rife with magic and movement. I stray alone
Here on the edge of silence, half afraid,Waiting a sign. In the deep heart of me
The sullen waters swell towards the moon,
And all my tides set seaward.
From inland
Leaps a gay fragment of some mocking tune,
That tinkles and laughs and fades along the sand,
And dies between the seawall and the sea.
The Fisher’s Boy
by Henry David ThoreauMy life is like a stroll upon the beach,
As near the ocean’s edge as I can go;
My tardy steps its waves sometimes o’erreach,
Sometimes I stay to let them overflow.My sole employment is, and scrupulous care,
To place my gains beyond the reach of tides,—
Each smoother pebble, and each shell more rare,
Which Ocean kindly to my hand confides.I have but few companions on the shore:
They scorn the strand who sail upon the sea;
Yet oft I think the ocean they’ve sailed o’er
Is deeper known upon the strand to me.The middle sea contains no crimson dulse,
Its deeper waves cast up no pearls to view;
Along the shore my hand is on its pulse,
And I converse with many a shipwrecked crew.
A Grey Day
by William Vaughn MoodyGrey drizzling mists the moorlands drape,
Rain whitens the dead sea,
From headland dim to sullen cape
Grey sails creep wearily.
I know not how that merchantman
Has found the heart; but ’tis her plan
Seaward her endless course to shape.Unreal as insects that appall
A drunkard’s peevish brain,
O’er the grey deep the dories crawl,
Four-legged, with rowers twain:
Midgets and minims of the earth,
Across old ocean’s vasty girth
Toiling–heroic, comical!I wonder how that merchant’s crew
Have ever found the will!
I wonder what the fishers do
To keep them toiling still!
I wonder how the heart of man
Has patience to live out its span,
Or wait until its dreams come true.
Sea Reverie
by Abram Joseph RyanStrange Sea! why is it that you never rest?
And tell me why you never go to sleep?
Thou art like one so sad and sin-oppressed —
(And the waves are the tears you weep) —
And thou didst never sin — what ails the sinless deep?To-night I hear you crying on the beach,
Like a weary child on its mother’s breast —
A cry with an infinite and lonesome reach
Of unutterably deep unrest;
And thou didst never sin — why art thou so distressed?But, ah, sad Sea! the mother’s breast is warm,
Where crieth the lone and the wearied child;
And soft the arms that shield her own from harm;
And her look is unutterably mild —
But to-night, O Sea! thy cry is wild, so wild!What ails thee, Sea? The midnight stars are bright —
How safe they lean on heaven’s sinless breast!
O Sea! is the beach too hard, tho’ e’er so white,
To give thy utter weariness a rest?
(And to-night the winds are a-coming from the West).
Poems About the Ocean and Love
How Like the Sea
by Ella Wheeler WilcoxHow like the sea, the myriad-minded sea,
Is this large love of ours: so vast, so deep,
So full of myseries! it, too, can keep
Its secrets, like the ocean; and is free,
Free, as the boundless main. Now it may be
Calm like the brow of some sweet child asleep;
Again its seething billows surge and leap
And break in fulness of their ecstasy.Each wave so like the wave which came before,
Yet never two the same! Imperative
And then persuasive as the cooing dove,
Encroaching ever on the yielding shore—
Ready to take; yet readier still to give—
How like the myriad-minded sea, is love.
Twilight at Sea
by Amelia B. WelbyThe twilight hours, like birds, flew by,
As lightly and as free,
Ten thousand stars were in the sky,
Ten thousand on the sea;
For every wave, with dimpled face,
That leaped upon the air,
Had caught a star in its embrace,
And held it trembling there.
Sea-Shore Musings
by Rosanna Eleanor LeprohonHow oft I’ve longed to gaze on thee,
Thou proud and mighty deep!
Thy vast horizon, boundless, free,
Thy coast so rude and steep;
And now entranced I breathless stand,
Where earth and ocean meet,
Whilst billows wash the golden sand,
And break around my feet.Lovely thou art when dawn’s red light
Sheds o’er thee its soft hue,
Showing fair ships, a gallant sight,
Upon thy waters blue;
And when the moonbeams softly pour
Their light on wave or glen,
And diamond spray leaps on the shore,
How lovely art thou then!Still, as I look, faint shadows steal
O’er thy calm heaving breast,
And there are times, I sadly feel,
Thou art not thus at rest;
And I bethink me of past tales,
Of ships that left the shore,
And meeting with thy fearful gales,
Have ne’er been heard of more.They say thy depths hold treasures rare,
Groves coral – sands of gold –
Pearls fitted for a monarch’s wear
And gems of worth untold;
But these could not to life restore
The idol of one home,
Nor make brave hearts beat high once more
That sleep beneath thy foam.But I must chase such thoughts away,
They mar this happy hour,
Remembering thou dost but obey
Thy Great Creator’s, power;
And in my own fair inland home,
Mysterious, moaning main,
In dreams I’ll see thy snow-white foam
And frowning rocks again.
The Sea Maid
by John Le Gay BreretonIn what pearl-paven mossy cave
By what green sea
Art thou reclining, virgin of the wave,
In realms more full of splendid mystery
Than that strong northern flood whence came
The rise and fall of music in thy name
Thy waiting name, Oithona!The magic of the sea’s own change
In depth and height,
From where the eternal order’d billows range
To unknown regions of sleep-weary night,
Fills, like a wonder-waking spell
Whispered by lips of some lone-murmuring shell,
Thy dreaming soul, Oithona.In gladness of thy reverie
What gracious form
Will fly the errand of our love to thee,
By ways with winged messengers aswarm
Through dawn of opalescent skies,
To say the time is come and bid thee rise
And be our child, Oithona?
Through Time and Bitter Distance
by Emily Pauline JohnsonUnknown to you, I walk the cheerless shore.
The cutting blast, the hurl of biting brine,
May freeze, and still, and bind the waves at war,
Ere you will ever know, O! Heart of mine,
That I have sought, reflected in the blue
Of these sea depths, some shadow of your eyes;
Have hoped the laughing waves would sing of you,
But this is all my starving sight descries—I.
Far out at sea a sail
Bends to the freshening breeze,
Yields to the rising gale,
That sweeps the seas;II.
Yields, as a bird wind-tossed,
To saltish waves that fling
Their spray, whose rime and frost
Like crystals clingIII.
To canvas, mast and spar,
Till, gleaming like a gem,
She sinks beyond the far
Horizon’s hem.IV.
Lost to my longing sight,
And nothing left to me
Save an oncoming night,—
An empty sea.
The Wind Sleepers
by Hilda DoolittleWhiter
than the crust
left by the tide,
we are stung by the hurled sand
and the broken shells.We no longer sleep
in the wind—
we awoke and fled
through the city gate.Tear—
tear us an altar,
tug at the cliff-boulders,
pile them with the rough stones—
we no longer
sleep in the wind,
propitiate us.Chant in a wail
that never halts,
pace a circle and pay tribute
with a song.When the roar of a dropped wave
breaks into it,
pour meted words
of sea-hawks and gull
sand sea-birds that cry
discords.
Poems About the Ocean and Death
Crossing the Bar
by Lord Tennyson AlfredSunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
Ocean of Forms
by Rabindranath TagoreI dive down into the depth of the ocean of forms,
hoping to gain the perfect pearl of the formless.No more sailing from harbor to harbor with this my weather-beaten boat.
The days are long passed when my sport was to be tossed on waves.And now I am eager to die into the deathless.
Into the audience hall by the fathomless abyss
where swells up the music of toneless strings
I shall take this harp of my life.I shall tune it to the notes of forever,
and when it has sobbed out its last utterance,
lay down my silent harp at the feet of the silent.
Moonrise at Sea
by Thomas Bailey AldrichUp from the dark the moon begins to creep;
And now a pallid, haggard face lifts she
Above the water-line: thus from the deep
A drownéd body rises solemnly.
Fog
by Robert HillyerWhere does the sea end and the sky begin?
We sink in blue for which there is no word.
Two sails, fog-coloured, loiter on the thin
Mirage of ocean.
There is no sound of wind, nor wave, nor bird,
Nor any motion.
Except the shifting mists that turn and lift,
Showing behind the two limp sails a third,
Then blotting it again.A gust, a spattering of rain,
The lazy water breaks in nervous rings.
Somewhere a bleak bell buoy sings,
Muffled at first, then clear,
Its wet, grey monotone.The dead are here.
We are not quite alone.
For Joseph Conrad
by Countee CullenNot of the dust, but of the wave
His final couch should be;
They lie not easy in a grave
Who once have known the sea.
How shall earth’s meagre bed enthrall
The hardiest seaman of them all?
Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd
by Walt WhitmanOut of the rolling ocean, the crowd, came a drop gently to me,
Whispering I love you, before long I die,
I have travel’d a long way, merely to look on you to touch you,
For I could not die till I once look’d on you,
For I fear’d I might afterward lose you.Now we have met, we have look’d, we are safe,
Return in peace to the ocean my love,
I too am part of that ocean, my love, we are not so much separated,
Behold the great rondure, the cohesion of all, how perfect!
But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separate us,
As for an hour carrying us diverse, yet cannot carry us diverse forever;
Be not impatient—a little space—know you I salute the air, the ocean and the land,
Every day at sundown for your dear sake my love.
Loss
by Hilda DoolittleThe sea called—
you faced the estuary,
you were drowned as the tide passed.—
I am glad of this—
at least you have escaped.The heavy sea-mist stifles me.
I choke with each breath—
a curious peril, this—
the gods have invented
curious torture for us.One of us, pierced in the flank,
dragged himself across the marsh,
he tore at the bay-roots,
lost hold on the crumbling bank—Another crawled—too late—
for shelter under the cliffs.I am glad the tide swept you out,
O beloved,
you of all this ghastly host
alone untouched,
your white flesh covered with salt
as with myrrh and burnt iris.We were hemmed in this place,
so few of us, so few of us to fight
their sure lances,
the straight thrust—effortless
with slight life of muscle and shoulder.So straight—only we were left,
the four of us—somehow shut off.And the marsh dragged one back,
and another perished under the cliff,
and the tide swept you out.Your feet cut steel on the paths,
I followed for the strength
of life and grasp.
I have seen beautiful feet
but never beauty welded with strength.
I marvelled at your height.You stood almost level
with the lance-bearers
and so slight.And I wondered as you clasped
your shoulder-strap
at the strength of your wrist
and the turn of your young fingers,
and the lift of your shorn locks,
and the bronze
of your sun-burnt neck.All of this,
and the curious knee-cap,
fitted above the wrought greaves,
and the sharp muscles of your back
which the tunic could not cover—
the outline
no garment could deface.I wonder if you knew how I watched,
how I crowded before the spearsmen—
but the gods wanted you,
the gods wanted you back.
Beautiful Short Poems About the Ocean
Sea Calm
by Langston HughesHow still,
How strangely still
The water is today,
It is not good
For water
To be so still that way.
Lost
by Carl SandburgDesolate and lone
All night long on the lake
Where fog trails and mist creeps,
The whistle of a boat
Calls and cries unendingly,
Like some lost child
In tears and trouble
Hunting the harbor’s breast
And the harbor’s eyes.
Seal Lullaby
by Rudyard KiplingOh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us,
And black are the waters that sparkled so green.
The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us
At rest in the hollows that rustle between.
Where billow meets billow, there soft be thy pillow;
Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee,
Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas.
What Are Heavy?
by Christina RossettiWhat are heavy? Sea-sand and sorrow;
What are brief? Today and tomorrow;
What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth;
What are deep? The ocean and truth.
Song from Mardi
by Herman MelvilleLike the fish of the bright and twittering fin,
Bright fish! diving deep as high soars the lark,
So, far, far, far, doth the maiden swim,
Wild song, wild light, in still ocean’s dark.
Poems About the Ocean That Rhyme
Sea Slant
by Carl SandburgOn up the sea slant,
On up the horizon,
This ship limps.The bone of her nose fog-gray,
The heart of her sea-strong,
She came a long way,
She goes a long way.On up the horizon,
On up the sea-slant,
She limps sea-strong, fog-gray.She is a green-lit night gray.
She comes and goes in sea fog.
Up the horizon slant she limps.
The Sea Wind
by Sara TeasdaleI am a pool in a peaceful place,
I greet the great sky face to face,
I know the stars and the stately moon
And the wind that runs with rippling shoon
But why does it always bring to me
The far-off, beautiful sound of the sea?The marsh-grass weaves me a wall of green,
But the wind comes whispering in between,
In the dead of night when the sky is deep
The wind comes waking me out of sleep
Why does it always bring to me
The far-off, terrible call of the sea?
Eternity
by George Marion McClellanRock me to sleep, ye waves, and drift my boat,
With undulations soft, far out to sea;
Perchance, where sky and wave wear one blue coat,
My heart shall find some hidden rest remote.
My spirit swoons, and all my senses cry
For ocean’s breast and covering of the sky.
Rock me to sleep, ye waves, and, outward bound,
Just let me drift far out toil and care,
Where lapping of the waves shall be the sound
Which, mingled with the winds that gently bear
Me on between a peaceful sea and sky,
To make my soothing, slumberous lullaby.
Thus drifting on and on upon thy breast,
My heart shall go to sleep and rest, and rest.
It’s a Long Way
by William Stanley BraithwaiteIt’s a long way the sea-winds blow
Over the sea-plains blue,—
But longer far has my heart to go
Before its dreams come true.It’s work we must, and love we must,
And do the best we may,
And take the hope of dreams in trust
To keep us day by day.It’s a long way the sea-winds blow—
But somewhere lies a shore—
Thus down the tide of Time shall flow
My dreams forevermore.
The Sea Spirit
by Madison Julius CaweinAh me! I shall not waken soon
From dreams of such divinity!
A spirit singing ‘neath the moon
To me.Wild sea-spray driven of the storm
Is not so wildly white as she,
Who beckoned with a foam-white arm
To me.With eyes dark green, and golden-green
Long locks that rippled drippingly,
Out of the green wave she did lean
To me.And sang; till Earth and Heaven seemed
A far, forgotten memory,
And more than Heaven in her who gleamed
On me.Sleep, sweeter than love’s face or home;
And death’s immutability;
And music of the plangent foam,
For me!Sweep over her! with all thy ships,
With all thy stormy tides, O sea!
The memory of immortal lips
For me!
Short Poems About the Sea and Love
Sea Lyric
by William Stanley BraithwaiteOver the seas to-night, love,
Over the darksome deeps,
Over the seas to-night, love,
Slowly my vessel creeps.
Over the seas to-night, love,
Waking the sleeping foam—
Sailing away from thee, love,
Sailing from thee and home.
Over the seas to-night, love,
Dreaming beneath the spars—
Till in my dreams you shine, love,
Bright as the listening stars.
Sea Longing
by Sara TeasdaleA thousand miles beyond this sun-steeped wall
Somewhere the waves creep cool along the sand,
The ebbing tide forsakes the listless land
With the old murmur, long and musical;
The windy waves mount up and curve and fall,
And round the rocks the foam blows up like snow,
Tho’ I am inland far, I hear and know,
For I was born the sea’s eternal thrall.
I would that I were there and over me
The cold insistence of the tide would roll,
Quenching this burning thing men call the soul,
Then with the ebbing I should drift and be
Less than the smallest shell along the shoal,
Less than the sea-gulls calling to the sea.
A Sea-Change
by Jessie Belle RittenhouseOnce in a year of wonder
I brought to you a dream,
And all your waves gave back to me
Only its gleam.
But now I come again, O Sea,
Under a changing sky,
And all your waves lie gray and still
As dreams that die.
Voice of the Sea
by William Stanley BraithwaiteVoice of the sea that calls to me,
Heart of the woods my own heart loves,
I am part of your mystery—
Moved by the soul your own soul moves.
Dream of the stars in the night-sea’s dome,
Somewhere in your infinite space
After the years I will come home,
Back to your halls to claim my place.