Beside dim wharves, the battered ships are dreaming, -- The worn ships, the torn ships, with many a draggled mast. The gray old ships are musing of those creaming Waters that weltered in the days long past! Maybe they dream of how the idle ocean, A glittering Dragon, with rippling scales of gold, Would writhe and twist with sleepy crafty motion, Suddenly frothing where the hushed bark rolled. How still they sway and think upon the glories Of shimmering lagoons that lit the tranquil morn! How soft they sigh, remembering the stories Of Africa, Bermuda, and the far Cape Horn! By what fierce tempests were they hurled and harried? Or did they groan on any foamy shoal? And what strange freight or cargoes have they carried? Bulging green bananas or the bins of coal? But now they creak and startle from their napping, -- These worn old ships, with many a draggled mast; And while they listen to the waves lip-lapping, They fall to dreaming of the days long past! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE END OF THE WORLD by GORDON BOTTOMLEY O MORS! QUAM AMARA EST MEMORIA TUA HOMINI PACEM HABENTI by ERNEST CHRISTOPHER DOWSON MY BIRD by EMILY CHUBBUCK JUDSON ON LAYING THE CORNER-STONE OF THE BUNKER HILL MOMUMENT by JOHN PIERPONT TO THE UNIMPLORED BELOVED by EDWARD SHANKS THE GREEN LINNET by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH LAURENCE BLOOMFIELD IN IRELAND: 9. GOING TO THE FAIR by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM |