Songs of Sea and Sail

<h2>PHANTOMS.</h2> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Like a tide that runs increasing,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Bearing ships to port again,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">There's a tide that brings unceasing</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Pleasures to my restless brain.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">When at night I sit and swinging</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Idly to a strain of thought,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Then it flows, resistless, bringing</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Countless tales with pleasure fraught.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And it seems as though the olden</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Stories of the mystic sea</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Came like ships to bear their golden,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Precious cargoes unto me.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">For I hail with deep emotion</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">All those gray and ghostly forms,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Phantoms of the shoreless ocean</span><br/> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</SPAN></span></p> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">That is swept by constant storms.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And I see from mist-enshrouded,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Ancient, half-forgotten tales</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Galleons rise, and memory clouded,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Pass with faint and formless sails.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Others come, the tall and splendid</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Monarchs of the oaken side,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who, with master arms, contended</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">For the empire of the tide.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">One by one they pass in glory&mdash;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Stately shapes that led the van&mdash;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Builders of the ocean's story,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Noblest gift of man to man.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And not less the worn and shattered,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Drifting, find my port at last.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">All the stranded, stove, and battered</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Victims of the wave and blast,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">They are mine by right of capture:</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Buccaneer and ship of plate;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And I search their holds with rapture</span><br/> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</SPAN></span></p> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Till the night grows cold and late;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Till the moon, high-prowed and dipping,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Like a ship of ancient worth,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Leaves her cloudy port and slipping,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Spins her wake across the earth.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And the wind, to peace consenting,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Breathes a hymn above the land;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And the ocean, half repenting,</span><br/> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</SPAN></span></p> <span style="margin-left: 3em;">Kneels in prayer along the sand.</span><br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />