Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SHIPS OF GLOU'STER, by RUTH HORNBROOK


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SHIPS OF GLOU'STER, by                    
First Line: Decadent ships of brash display
Last Line: Come slanting portward, home.
Subject(s): Sailing & Sailors; Ships & Shipping; Seamen; Sails


Decadent ships of brash display—
Gilt ships where men may dance—
They sail the sea and feel no spray;
Breast storms and take no chance;
And they have cowed the sea's wild way,
Its perilous romance,
Its challenging horizons gray,
With artful dominance.

'Twas courage of a sterner sort
That laid the ocean trails;
And watching these flip ships cavort
Immune, where death prevails,
Choking the winds with smoke for sport,
I thank the god of gales
For the valiant ships of Glou'ster port
That still tread seas with sails.

Great-hearted mariners they are
That Glou'ster merchants plant
On their Glou'ster ships, like cord and spar
Of fibre adamant.
They know the lore of the Guiding Star
And they stand a-deck aslant
When winds start landsmen's prayers afar,
As other sailors can't.

They hie them not to cushioned cells
To parry winds with wires,
When tempests rack the buoy bells
And carve the sea in spires.
Their fray is where the wild sail swells
In sight of all defiers
And face to face with tumult; else
They were not like their sires.

Norse souls, surviving epic graves,
These Glou'ster men imbrue—
Norse souls who clenched the winds and waves
To be their retinue;
Sea Masters—never flaccid slaves
To button, switch and screw—
Base ruse, unmanning what it saves—
Their sons are like them too.

Oh, Dick, my sailor, browned and brined,
With salt mist in his hair,
Says nought's so sorry, to his mind,
As landsmen crowding there
When men may wing like wisps of wind
Outleaguing shuffling care;
And past the risk-tanged verges find
What space God has to spare.

But sweet tho' these sea-spannings be
For those who crave to roam,
Most blest the hour for folk like me
Who wait for them to come,
When Glou'ster brigs, with sails flung free,
And smashing waves to foam
Come slanting portward up the sea—
Come slanting portward, home.





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