Stella Benson’s speaker looks back at the uncertain trail of footprints stretching from her birth, a path full of storms. Now she has reached the sea, which breaks that old track and separates her from the past. Rather than sounding lost, she sounds released. The sea may be immense and untamed, but it cannot touch three things: her singing soul, her “Secret Friend,” and this present moment of fullness. The final stanza turns to someone who will come looking for her. That person won’t find footprints leading onward, but they will find marks of dancing on the beach and happy voices of unseen companions in the air. The mood is joyful and a little mysterious—part love song, part private celebration of freedom, suggesting a moment when the speaker feels alive beyond the reach of fate or the past.
Song — Summary
There is the track my feet have worn By which my fate may find me: From that dim place where I was born Those footprints run behind me. Uncertain was the trail I left, For--oh, the way was stormy; But now this splendid sea has cleft My journey from before me.
Three things the sea shall never end, Three things shall mock its power: My singing soul, my Secret Friend, And this, my perfect hour. And you shall seek me till you reach The tangled tide advancing, And you shall find upon the beach The traces of my dancing, And in the air the happy speech Of Secret Friends romancing.