The Love o’ Ships
O it is ours to hear you, Love,
That laugh like a siren on a siren shore,
With the blue of your eyes like the blue above,
Your yellow hair as the yellow sands before;
You ride on the wind and call us, Sweet,
At the dawn, the purple dawn of the daring day,
And the catch of your breath lends the breakers feet
To help our hearts obey (frail hearts!),
To help our hearts obey.
’Tis ours to taste the kiss of your mouth
Like the faintest fume of the salt of the sunrise sea,
When the eyes of you flame as the sun of the south,
And your hair, your buoyant yellow hair is free;
’Tis ours to feel the sting of your breath
That quickens our hearts, as the waves are quicked by the wind,—
To follow you, Love, till your jealous Death
Finds us and strikes us blind (poor eyes!)
Finds us and leaves us blind.
We in your worship battle and dare
And make of our lives a toy and a jape, content
To see the glint of the sun in your hair,
The ringing deep in your pagan spirit blent;
We follow and woo and are fain to wed
For you have all the wealth of the world to dower,—
Though our honour has died where faith lies dead
We barter them both for power, (sad fools!)
We fling them away for power.
And sure we see, when the foam is free,
And the hissing waves are hurtling over the rail,
Your form afloat on the film of the sea,
And we fare drunk on a dream of your forehead pale.
We yearn to the goal of your luring lips,
Forgetting the clasp and the human kiss of earth,—
And we die in the love of you, Love o’ Ships,
Who have sought you from our birth (mad souls!)
Who have loved you from our birth.