Gone are the days of canvas sails! No more great sailors tell their tales In country taverns, barter pearls For kisses from strange little girls; And when the landlord's merry daughter Heard their rough jokes and shrieked with laughter, They threw a muffler of rare fur, That hid her neck from ear to ear. Ho, ho! my merry men; they know Where gold is plentiful -- Sail ho! How they did love the rude wild Sea! The rude, unflattering Sea; for he Will not lie down for monarch's yacht, No more than merchant's barge; he'll not Keep graves with marks of wood or stone For fish or fowl, or human bone. The Sea is loth to lose a friend; Men of one voyage, who did spend Six months with him, hear his vexed cry Haunting their houses till they die. And for the sake of him they let The winds blow them, and raindrops wet Their foreheads with fresh water sprays -- Thinking of his wild, salty days. And well they love to saunter near A river, and its motion hear; And see ships lying in calm beds, That danced upon seas' living heads; And in their dreams they hear again Men's voices in a hurricane -- Like ghosts complaining that their graves Are moved by sacrilegious waves. And they do love to stand and hear The old seafaring men that fear Land more than water; carts and trains More than wild waves and hurricanes. And they do walk with love and pride The tattooed mariner beside -- Chains, anchors on his arm, and ships -- And listen to his bearded lips. Aye, they will hear the Sea's vexed cry Haunting their houses till they die. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PRISONER (A FRAGMENT) by EMILY JANE BRONTE THE WHITE KNIGHT'S SONG by CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON WORLDLY PLACE by MATTHEW ARNOLD ON SEEING AN OFFICER'S WIDOW DISTRACTED - ARREARS OF PENSION by MARY BARBER SARAH THREENEEDLES (BOSTON, 1698) by KATHARINE LEE BATES A NEW PILGRIMAGE: 35 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |