Ballads of Lost Haven: A Book of the Sea

<h2><SPAN name="NOONS_OF_POPPY" id="NOONS_OF_POPPY"></SPAN>NOONS OF POPPY</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>Noons of poppy, noons of poppy,</div> <div>Scarlet leagues along the sea;</div> <div>Flaxen hair afloat in sunlight,</div> <div>Love, come down the world to me!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>There's a Captain I must ship with,</div> <div>(Heart, that day be far from now!)</div> <div>Wears his dark command in silence</div> <div>With the sea-frost on his brow.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Noons of poppy, noons of poppy,</div> <div>Purple shadows by the sea;</div> <div>How should love take thought to wonder</div> <div>What the destined port may be?</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Nay, if love have joy for shipmate</div> <div>For a night-watch or a year,</div> <div>Dawn will light o'er Lonely Haven,</div> <div>Heart to happy heart, as here.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Noons of poppy, noons of poppy,</div> <div>Scarlet acres by the sea</div> <div>Burning to the blue above them;</div> <div>Love, the world is full for me.</div> </div></div> <hr /> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></SPAN></span></p> <h2><SPAN name="LEGENDS_OF_LOST_HAVEN" id="LEGENDS_OF_LOST_HAVEN"></SPAN>LEGENDS OF LOST HAVEN</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>There are legends of Lost Haven,</div> <div>Come, I know not whence, to me,</div> <div>When the wind is in the clover,</div> <div>When the sun is on the sea.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>There are rumors in the pine-tops,</div> <div>There are whispers in the grass;</div> <div>And the flocking crows at nightfall</div> <div>Bring home hints of things that pass</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Out upon the broad dike yonder,</div> <div>All day long beneath the sun,</div> <div>Where the tall ships cloud and settle</div> <div>Down the sea-curve, one by one.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>And the crickets in fine chorus&mdash;</div> <div>Every slim and tiny reed&mdash;</div> <div>Strive to chord the broken rhythmus</div> <div>Of the world, and half succeed.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>There are myriad traditions</div> <div>Treasured by the talking rain;</div> <div>And with memories the moonlight</div> <div>Walks the cold and silent plain.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Where the river tells his hill-tales</div> <div>To the lone complaining bar,</div> <div>Where the midgets thread their dances</div> <div>To the yellow twilight star,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Where the blossom bends to hearken</div> <div>To the bee with velvet bands,</div> <div>There are chronicles enciphered</div> <div>Of the yet uncharted lands.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>All the musical marauders</div> <div>Of the berry and the bloom</div> <div>Sing the lure of soul's illusion</div> <div>Out of darkness, out of doom.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>But the sure and great evangel</div> <div>Comes when half alone I hear,</div> <div>At the rosy door of silence,</div> <div>Love, the lord of speech, draw near.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Then for once across the threshold,</div> <div>Darkling spirit, thou art free,&mdash;</div> <div>As thy hope is every ship makes</div> <div>Some lost haven of the sea.</div> </div></div> <hr /> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></SPAN></span></p> <h2><SPAN name="THE_SHADOW_BOATSWAIN" id="THE_SHADOW_BOATSWAIN"></SPAN>THE SHADOW BOATSWAIN</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>Don't you know the sailing orders?</div> <div>It is time to put to sea,</div> <div>And the stranger in the harbor</div> <div>Sends a boat ashore for me.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>With the thunder of her canvas</div> <div>Coming on the wind again,</div> <div>I can hear the Shadow Boatswain</div> <div>Piping to his shadow men.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Is it firelight or morning,</div> <div>That red flicker on the floor?</div> <div>Your good-by was braver, sweetheart,</div> <div>When I sailed away before.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Think of this last lovely summer!</div> <div>Love, what ails the wind to-night?</div> <div>What's he saying in the chimney</div> <div>Turns your berry cheek so white?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>What a morning! How the sunlight</div> <div>Sparkles on the outer bay,</div> <div>Where the brig lies waiting for me</div> <div>To trip anchor and away!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>That's the Doomkeel. You may know her</div> <div>By her clean run aft; and, then,</div> <div>Don't you hear the Shadow Boatswain</div> <div>Piping to his shadow men?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Off the freshening sea to windward,</div> <div>Is it a white tern I hear</div> <div>Shrilling in the gusty weather</div> <div>Where the far sea-line is clear?</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>What a morning for departure!</div> <div>How your blue eyes melt and shine!</div> <div>Will you watch us from the headland</div> <div>Till we sink below the line?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I can see the wind already</div> <div>Steer the scurf marks of the tide,</div> <div>As we slip the wake of being</div> <div>Down the sloping world and wide.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I can feel the vasty mountains</div> <div>Heave and settle under me,</div> <div>And the Doomkeel veer and shudder,</div> <div>Crumbling on the hollow sea.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>There's a call, as when a white gull</div> <div>Cries and beats across the blue;</div> <div>That must be the Shadow Boatswain</div> <div>Piping to his shadow crew.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>There's a boding sound, like winter</div> <div>When the pines begin to quail;</div> <div>That must be the gray wind moaning</div> <div>In the belly of the sail.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>I can feel the icy fingers</div> <div>Creeping in upon my bones;</div> <div>There must be a berg to windward</div> <div>Somewhere in these border zones.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Stir the fire.... I love the sunlight,&mdash;</div> <div>Always loved my shipmate sun.</div> <div>How the sunflowers beckon to me</div> <div>From the dooryard one by one!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>How the royal lady roses</div> <div>Strew this summer world of ours!</div> <div>There'll be none in Lonely Haven;</div> <div>It is too far north for flowers.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>There, sweetheart! And I must leave you.</div> <div>What should touch my wife with tears?</div> <div>There's no danger with the Master;</div> <div>He has sailed the sea for years.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>With the sea-wolves on her quarter,</div> <div>And a white bone in her teeth,</div> <div>He will steer the shadow cruiser,</div> <div>Dark before and doom beneath,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Down the last expanse, till morning</div> <div>Flares above the broken sea,</div> <div>And the midnight storm is over,</div> <div>And the Isles are close alee.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>So some twilight, when your roses</div> <div>Are all blown and it is June,</div> <div>You will turn your blue eyes seaward</div> <div>Through the white dusk of the moon,</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Wondering, as that far sea-cry</div> <div>Comes upon the wind again,</div> <div>And you hear the Shadow Boatswain</div> <div>Piping to his shadow men.</div> </div></div> <hr /> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></SPAN></span></p> <h2><SPAN name="THE_MASTER_OF_THE_ISLES" id="THE_MASTER_OF_THE_ISLES"></SPAN>THE MASTER OF THE ISLES</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>There is rumor in Dark Harbor,</div> <div>And the folk are all astir;</div> <div>For a stranger in the offing</div> <div>Draws them down to gaze at her,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>In the gray of early morning,</div> <div>Black against the orange streak,</div> <div>Making in below the ledges,</div> <div>With no colors at her peak.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Something makes their hearts uneasy</div> <div>As they watch the long black hull,</div> <div>For she brings the storm behind her</div> <div>While before her there is lull.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>With no pilot and unspoken,</div> <div>Where the dancing breakers are,</div> <div>Presently she veers and races</div> <div>In across the roaring bar,&mdash;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Rounds and luffs and comes to anchor,</div> <div>While the wharf begins to throng.</div> <div>Silence falls upon the women.</div> <div>And misgiving stirs the strong.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Then with some obscure foreboding,</div> <div>As a gray-haired watcher smiles,</div> <div>They perceive the fearless captain</div> <div>Is the Master of the Isles.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>They recall the bleak December</div> <div>Many streaming years ago,</div> <div>When the stranger had been sighted</div> <div>Driving shoreward with the snow;</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>When the Master came among them</div> <div>With his calm and courtly pride,</div> <div>And had sailed away at sundown</div> <div>With pale Dora for his bride;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>How again he came one summer</div> <div>When the herring schools were late,</div> <div>And had cleared before the morning</div> <div>With old Alec's son for mate.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>There was glamour with the Master;</div> <div>He had tales of far-off seas;</div> <div>But his habit and demeanor</div> <div>Were of other lands than these.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>He had never made the Harbor</div> <div>But there sailed away with him</div> <div>Wife or child or friend or lover,</div> <div>Leaving eyes to strain and swim,&mdash;</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Strain and wait for their returning;</div> <div>Yet they never had come back;</div> <div>For the pale wake of the Master</div> <div>Is a wandering, fading track.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Just beyond our utmost fathom</div> <div>Is the anchorage we crave,</div> <div>But the Master knows the soundings</div> <div>By the reach of every wave.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Just beyond the last horizon,</div> <div>Vague upon the weather-gleam,</div> <div>Loom the Faroff Isles forever,</div> <div>The tradition of a dream.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>There a white and brooding summer</div> <div>Haunts upon the gray sea-plain,</div> <div>Where the gray sea-winds are quiet</div> <div>At the sources of the rain.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>There where all world-weary dreamers</div> <div>Get them forth to their release,</div> <div>Lie the colonies of the kindred,</div> <div>In the provinces of peace.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Thither in the stormy sunset</div> <div>Will the Master sail to-night;</div> <div>And the village will be silent</div> <div>When he drops below the light.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Not a soul on all the hillside</div> <div>But will watch her when she clears,</div> <div>Dreaming of the Port o' Strangers</div> <div>In the roadstead of the years.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>"Port o' Strangers, Port o' Strangers!"</div> <div>"Where away?" "On the weather bow."</div> <div>"Drive her down the closing distance!" ...</div> <div>That's to-morrow, but not now.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>What imperial adventure</div> <div>Some wide morning it will be,</div> <div>Sweeping in to Lonely Haven</div> <div>From the chartless round of sea!</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>How imposing a departure,</div> <div>While this little harbor smiles,</div> <div>Steering for the outer sea-rim</div> <div>With the Master of the Isles!</div> </div></div> <hr /> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></SPAN></span></p> <h2><SPAN name="THE_LAST_WATCH" id="THE_LAST_WATCH"></SPAN>THE LAST WATCH</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>Comrades, comrades, have me buried</div> <div>Like a warrior of the sea,</div> <div>With a flag across my breast</div> <div>And my sword upon my knee.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Steering out from vanished headlands</div> <div>For a harbor on no chart,</div> <div>With the winter in the rigging,</div> <div>With the ice-wind in my heart,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Down the bournless slopes of sea-room,</div> <div>With the long gray wake behind,</div> <div>I have sailed my cruiser steady</div> <div>With no pilot but the wind.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Battling with relentless pirates</div> <div>From the lower seas of Doom,</div> <div>I have kept the colors flying</div> <div>Through the roar of drift and gloom.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Scudding where the shadow foemen</div> <div>Hang about us grim and stark,</div> <div>Broken spars and shredded canvas,</div> <div>We are racing for the dark.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Sped and blown abaft the sunset</div> <div>Like a shriek the storm has caught;</div> <div>But the helm is lashed to windward,</div> <div>And the sails are sheeted taut.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Comrades, comrades, have me buried</div> <div>Like a warrior of the night.</div> <div>I can hear the bell-buoy calling</div> <div>Down below the harbor light</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Steer in shoreward, loose the signal,</div> <div>The last watch has been cut short;</div> <div>Speak me kindly to the islesmen,</div> <div>When we make the foreign port.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>We shall make it ere the morning</div> <div>Rolls the fog from strait and bluff;</div> <div>Where the offing crimsons eastward</div> <div>There is anchorage enough.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>How I wander in my dreaming!</div> <div>Are we northing nearer home,</div> <div>Or outbound for fresh adventure</div> <div>On the reeling plains of foam?</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>North I think it is, my comrades,</div> <div>Where one heart-beat counts for ten,</div> <div>Where the loving hand is loyal,</div> <div>And the women's sons are men;</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Where the red auroras tremble</div> <div>When the polar night is still,</div> <div>Lighting home the worn seafarers</div> <div>To their haven in the hill.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Comrades, comrades, have me buried</div> <div>Like a warrior of the North.</div> <div>Lower me the long-boat, stay me</div> <div>In your arms, and bear me forth;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Lay me in the sheets and row me,</div> <div>With the tiller in my hand,</div> <div>Row me in below the beacon</div> <div>Where my sea-dogs used to land.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Has your captain lost his cunning</div> <div>After leading you so far?</div> <div>Row me your last league, my sea-kings;</div> <div>It is safe within the bar.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>Shoulder me and house me hillward,</div> <div>Where the field-lark makes his bed,</div> <div>So the gulls can wheel above me,</div> <div>All day long when I am dead;</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Where the keening wind can find me</div> <div>With the April rain for guide,</div> <div>And come crooning her old stories</div> <div>Of the kingdoms of the tide.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Comrades, comrades, have me buried</div> <div>Like a warrior of the sun;</div> <div>I have carried my sealed orders</div> <div>Till the last command is done.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Kiss me on the cheek for courage,</div> <div>(There is none to greet me home,)</div> <div>Then farewell to your old lover</div> <div>Of the thunder of the foam;</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>For the grass is full of slumber</div> <div>In the twilight world for me,</div> <div>And my tired hands are slackened</div> <div>From their toiling on the sea.</div> </div></div> <hr /> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></SPAN></span></p> <h2><SPAN name="OUTBOUND" id="OUTBOUND"></SPAN>OUTBOUND</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <div>A lonely sail in the vast sea-room,</div> <div>I have put out for the port of gloom.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The voyage is far on the trackless tide,</div> <div>The watch is long, and the seas are wide.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The headlands blue in the sinking day</div> <div>Kiss me a hand on the outward way.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The fading gulls, as they dip and veer,</div> <div>Lift me a voice that is good to hear.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>The great winds come, and the heaving sea,</div> <div>The restless mother, is calling me.</div> </div> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="stanza"> <div>The cry of her heart is lone and wild,</div> <div>Searching the night for her wandered child.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Beautiful, weariless mother of mine,</div> <div>In the drift of doom I am here, I am thine.</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Beyond the fathom of hope or fear,</div> <div>From bourn to bourn of the dusk I steer,</div> </div><div class="stanza"> <div>Swept on in the wake of the stars, in the stream</div> <div>Of a roving tide, from dream to dream.</div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />