Along the wharves in sailor town a singing whisper goes
Of the wind among the anchored ships, the wind that blows
Off a broad brimming water, where the summer day has died
Like a wounded whale a-sounding in the sunset tide.
There’s a big China liner gleaming like a gull,
And her lit ports flashing; there’s the long gaunt hull
Of a Blue-Funnel freighter with her derricks dark and still;
And a tall barque loading at the lumber mill.
And in the shops of sailor town is every kind of thing
That the sailormen buy there, or the ships’ crews bring:
Shackles for a sea-chest and pink cockatoos,
Fifty-cent alarum clocks and dead men’s shoes.
You can hear the gulls crying, and the cheerful noise
Of a concertina going, and a singer’s voice —
And the wind’s song and the tide’s song, crooning soft and low
Rum old tunes in sailor town that seamen know.
I dreamed a dream in sailor town, a foolish dream and vain,
Of ships and men departed, of old days come again —
And an old song in sailor town, an old song to sing
When shipmate meets with shipmate in the evening.
(Cicely Fox Smith)
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Based on Topics: Joy & Excitement Poems, Dreams Poems, Cry Poems, Summer Poems, Water Poems, Fool Poems, Singing Poems, Musicians PoemsBased on Keywords: alarum, liner, loading, sailormen, shipmate, cockatoos, concertina, derricks, fifty-cent, freighter, sea-chest