Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A SONG OF NANTUCKET, by ELISHA NORMAN GUNNISON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A SONG OF NANTUCKET, by                    
First Line: The land breaks out, like a gleam of hope
Last Line: Shine out in their changeful mood.
Alternate Author Name(s): Gunnison, E. Norman
Subject(s): Nantucket, Massachusetts


THE land breaks out, like a gleam of hope,
Over the ocean foam,
But its daughters no longer are pulling the rope
That's bringing her sailors home.

Her whalers lie rotting, and lone and drear,
Far in some foreign port:
They have laid there rusting for many a year,
Of water and wind the sport.

The decks are piled with the winter snows,
The men are scattered, -- ah me!
No masthead echoes to "There she blows!"
Far out in the Okhotsk Sea.

But her hearts are as tried, and her men as true,
As, when trimming the distant sail,
They passed their lives on the waters blue,
In hunting the Bow Head Whale.

Her daughters are pure and sweet and fair,
And cheerful and kind and good,
And sparkling water and sparkling air
Shine out in their changeful mood.





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