Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HOMESICK, by EDWARD BLISS REED


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HOMESICK, by                    
First Line: Shipwrecked in this grimy town, the worst / luck I have had
Last Line: Oh! Tomorrow I'll be sailing out to sea.
Subject(s): Disasters; Sailing & Sailors; Sea; Shipwrecks; Ocean


Shipwrecked in this grimy town, the worst luck I have had;
Soot and smoke to make you choke, and mills to drive you mad,
Noise and din, and filth and sin—but I'm a sailor lad,
And tomorrow I'll go sailing out to sea.

"How are you, mate?" says I to one, and stretches out my hand.
"Don't talk to me, I'm late," says he. It's hard to understand
How people find the time to breathe in this forsaken land—
But tomorrow I'll go sailing out to sea.

Here the children always cry, the women always scold;
A week in town has made me feel a hundred years grown old,
Another week would have me buried underneath the mould,
So tomorrow I'll go sailing out to sea.

Here in town you see no stars, so close the housetops meet;
There isn't any wind—just dust comes blowing down the street;
The smells, there's hundreds of them, they are anything but sweet,
Oh! tomorrow I'll be sailing out to sea.

"Live here," says one, "in all our mills big wages they will give."
"Avast," says I, "I'd rather bail the ocean with a sieve;
Don't talk to me of living when you don't know how to live."
So tomorrow I'll be sailing out to sea.

I'm glad I never married for there's no wife like my ship;
Tomorrow on her deck again I'll feel her rise and dip,
The clean, cold wind against my cheek, the salt spray on my lip,
Oh! tomorrow I'll be sailing out to sea.





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