“The Sea” is perhaps one of MacDowell’s finest songs. Set to a text by William Dean Howells, it describes the tragic story of a lonely sweetheart waiting in vain for the return of her lover, who has died in a shipwreck. MacDowell's use of chromaticism and carefully placed eighth rests adds dramatic intensity to the song and suggests the inevitable outcome of the maritime disaster. “The Sea” is the seventh song in MacDowell's Eight Songs, op. 47.