You Cannot Keep a Wild Thing

Come close now, the dance is done
And the moon's gone still on the lake
The fireflies are burning low
Here's a tale for the old world's sake

They say there was a northern shore
Where the cold grey water rolled
And a woman came at the fall of eve
With the deep dark sea in her hold
She would shed a sealskin on the stones
Like a gown she'd lay aside
And dance the night on the empty sand
To the drum of the turning tide

Oh, you cannot keep a wild thing
Though you love her, though you try
She was half the shore and half the sea
With the tide there in her eye
You cannot keep a wild thing
She was never yours to hold
For the water knows its own, its own
And it calls the wild ones home

Now a fisher watched from the hollow rocks
And he stole that skin away
And he hid it deep where she'd never look
So the girl would have to stay
And Moira, she wed him, and bore him kin
And she smiled through the falling years
But she'd stand at the door when the gulls would call
With the salt of the sea in her tears

Oh, you cannot keep a wild thing
Though you love her, though you try
She was half the shore and half the sea
With the tide there in her eye
You cannot keep a wild thing
She was never yours to hold
For the water knows its own, its own
And it calls the wild ones home

Then a child at play by the old stone wall
Pulled a grey thing from the gloom
"Oh Mother, look at the coat I found
Soft as the moonlight in the room."
And Moira, she knew it the moment she looked
And her heart gave a seaward heave
For a wild thing grieves for the sea it lost
And a wild thing has to leave

She kissed them all in the firelit dark
And she walked to the waiting foam
And she slipped that sealskin over her heart
And the cold sea welcomed her home
They say you can see her when the moon is full
Where the shore and the deep sea meet
A seal with a woman's grieving eyes
And a song too sad to keep

Oh, you cannot keep a wild thing
Though you love her, though you try
She was half the shore and half the sea
With the tide there in her eye
You cannot keep a wild thing
She was never yours to hold
For the water knows its own, its own
And it calls the wild ones home

So the fireflies drift, and the tale is told
And the moon melts back in the lake
Mind the wild ones, little ones
They were never ours to take
And Moira swims in the cold bright dark
Where the moon lays a road on the sea
Come close — the night is long, the fire is warm
And you'll never dance alone with me