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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


OUTWARD BOUND by GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE

First Line: SAILING, SAILING, / OVER THE WATERS AND OVER THE WORLD
Last Line: OUR EERIEST FANCIES, STRANGEST FEARS.
Subject(s): ADVENTURE & ADVENTURERS; NATURE - RELIGIOUS ASPECTS; SAILING & SAILORS; TRAVEL; SEAMEN; SAILS; JOURNEYS; TRIPS;

@2S@1AILING, sailing,
Over the waters and over the world,
High to the heaven our sheets unfurled;—
Hailing, hailing
Our Lord the Sun, our Lady Moon,
The starlit Night, the ardent Noon;—
Failing,
Paling,
To twilights breathless,
And dreamings deathless,—
And aft the Creole sailor's croon.

Leaping, leaping,
Quick with the quivering life of the Trades,—
On our bow grows the sea-line, to windward it fades;—
Steeping, steeping
The good ship and her marineres
In sea-light, sea-dark, years and years;—
Creeping,
Sleeping,—
The Wind-God numbers
Our sudden slumbers,
Our eeriest fancies, strangest fears.



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