Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SHIPMATE SORROW, by CICELY FOX SMITH Poet's Biography First Line: I was shipmates with sorrow in a day gone by Last Line: And it's old sorrow singing out of times gone by! Subject(s): Grief; Sorrow; Sadness | ||||||||
I WAS shipmates with Sorrow in a day gone by: We shared wheel and look-out, old Sorrow and I: Good times and bad times, foul weather and fair, The old grey face of him was always there. There was never shanty raised there, never song I heard, But his voice would be in it like a crying bird: I was dull in the dog watches when the laugh went free Because of old Sorrow sitting down by me. I thought I could lose him in the stir and change Of bright wicked cities all sunlit and strange: There came a hand at my elbow and a voice in my ear -- It was old patient Sorrow saying: "Lad, I'm here!' And by the bustling harbour, up the busy street, Many a time I see him, many a time I meet The old grey face there of one I used to know . . . And it's old shipmate Sorrow out of long ago. And the watch at the halliards, they may sing with a will, But the voice I used to hear, oh I think I hear it still, Like the wind in a shroud piping, or a seabird's cry . . . And it's old Sorrow singing out of times gone by! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONOMA FIRE by JANE HIRSHFIELD AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARDS by JOHN HOLLANDER WHAT GREAT GRIEF HAS MADE THE EMPRESS MUTE by JUNE JORDAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 19 by JAMES JOYCE DIRGE AT THE END OF THE WOODS by LEONIE ADAMS A CHANNEL RHYME by CICELY FOX SMITH |
|