TELL me, lovely girl, Whither would you go? For the sails unfurl And the breezes blow! I've an ivory scull, Streams of silken flags, Golden-ruddered hull Thro' the water drags; And for ballast weight An orange round and light; And my little mate Is a seraph mite; And the sail that swings Is together sewn From the down of wings Cherubim have known. Tell me, lovely girl, Whither would you go? For the sails unfurl And the breezes blow! Would you to the North Where the Baltic raves Say, or would you forth Over tropic waves? Where the bergs are chill Pluck the flower of snow, Or where fierce suns spill Cull the flower below? Tell me, lovely girl, Whither would you go? For the sails unfurl And the breezes blow! "Drive for me your keel,—" So the girl did sigh— "To the land o' leal Where no love may die." "That's a coast, my dear, Not upon the chart Of the bays and drear Forelands of the heart." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 6. THE KISS by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI TO - (1) by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY LETTER TO MY SISTER by ANNE SPENCER SINCE THOU ART GONE by HENRY VAUGHAN ON HIS RETURN FROM SPAIN by THOMAS WYATT ON BEING ASKED FOR A WAR POEM by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 40. AL-MUKIT by EDWIN ARNOLD |