Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE OUTWARD-BOUND SHIP, by REGINALD HEBER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE OUTWARD-BOUND SHIP, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: As borne along with favouring gale
Last Line: To hide its misery!
Subject(s): Ships & Shipping


As borne along with favouring gale
And streamers waving bright,
How gladly sweeps the glancing sail
O'er yonder sea of light!

With painted sides the vessel glides,
In seeming revelry;
And still we hear the sailor's cheer
Around the capstan tree.

Is sorrow there where all is fair,
Where all is outward glee?
Go, fool, to yonder mariner,
And he shall lesson thee!

Upon that deck walks tyrant sway
Wild as his conquer'd wave,
And murmuring hate that must obey;
The captain and his slave.

And pinching care is lurking there,
And dark ambition's swell,
And some that part with bursting heart
From objects loved too well;

And many a grief with gazing fed
On yonder distant shore,
And many a tear in secret shed
For friends beheld no more;

Yet sails the ship with streamers drest
And shouts of seeming glee:
Oh God! how loves the mortal breast
To hide its misery!





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