 | The Collected Poems of Lord De Tabley |  |
THE SAILING SHIP
The ship beats up the glittering strait,
With quivering sail and canvas crowded,
Where, up behind the haven gate,
A foreland rises, mist-enshrouded.
Sail, gallant ship, sail on with stately gliding
Beyond the mountain mist the storm is tiding,
Sail on, sail on.
With quivering sail and canvas crowded,
Where, up behind the haven gate,
A foreland rises, mist-enshrouded.
Sail, gallant ship, sail on with stately gliding
Beyond the mountain mist the storm is tiding,
Sail on, sail on.
A thousand knots of shifting tide
By palmy beach and coral meadow,
Thy keel has flung the spray aside
In noon-day gleam or midnight shadow.
Sail, eager ship, I love thee gently gliding,
Like some bright sea-bird on the ripple riding,
O sail, sail on.
By palmy beach and coral meadow,
Thy keel has flung the spray aside
In noon-day gleam or midnight shadow.
Sail, eager ship, I love thee gently gliding,
Like some bright sea-bird on the ripple riding,
O sail, sail on.
Thou bearest freight of foreign gold,
The bales and spices of the stranger;
For years thy imaged prow has rolled
In wrestle with the ocean danger.
From distant hearts, who love, thou bringest tiding,
Thou bindest land to land o'er ocean gliding,
Sail safely on.
The bales and spices of the stranger;
For years thy imaged prow has rolled
In wrestle with the ocean danger.
From distant hearts, who love, thou bringest tiding,
Thou bindest land to land o'er ocean gliding,
Sail safely on.
475
To haven waft on gentle gale,
And end in port thy travel weary,
Thy cable cast and furl thy sail
In shelter from the storm-wind dreary.
Sail, gallant ship, to haven safely guiding,
Heed not the idle billows round thee chiding,
Sail in, sail on!
And end in port thy travel weary,
Thy cable cast and furl thy sail
In shelter from the storm-wind dreary.
Sail, gallant ship, to haven safely guiding,
Heed not the idle billows round thee chiding,
Sail in, sail on!
August 31st, 1895.
| The Collected Poems of Lord De Tabley | |