WHAT @3maketh lads so cruel be? Amid the spume and wrack. They pass the door and put to sea, And never more come back.@1 The grey, salt wind winds down the wave, The galleon flouts the bay, And cobles and coggers are raising their sails: God keep 'ee down on the quay! With a hoist at thy tackles, a haul at thy blocks, And a hail to a hastening crew. He'll take 'ee Who gave 'ee thy goldilocks Ere I pardon thine eyes o' blue. Not once to ha' lookèd within my hood! Nor guessed I quailed on the strand Wi' thee in the boats! Thro' my pent-up door I ha' kissed to 'ee my hand. They'll rive thy keel wi' their cannon shocks, And sink 'ee and all thy crew; And they'll leave to the raven and cliff-homed fox Thy kindly eyes o' blue. Why need 'ee pass my open door Each breaking o' the day? What made 'ee take that selfsame path And never another way? I'll find 'ee stretched on the grinding rocks With a Frenchman's shot shot through, And the mermaid's weed from thy goldilocks Across thine eyes o' blue. @3What made 'ee lad, so cruel be? Amid the spume and wrack, To pass the door and put to sea And never once look back!@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FIVE SOULS by WILLIAM NORMAN EWER THE TROPICS IN NEW YORK by CLAUDE MCKAY A FATHER OF WOMEN: AD SOROREM E. B. by ALICE MEYNELL MANHATTAN ARMING by WALT WHITMAN BLEUE MAISON by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE IDLERS by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |