(A Maritime Paper)
Here is the record of their splendid days:
The curving prow, the tall and stately mast,
And all the width and wonder of their ways,
Reduced to little printed words, at last;
The Helen Dover docks, the Mary Ann
Departs for Ceylon and the Eastern trade;
Arrived: The Queen, with cargoes from Japan,
And Richard Kidd, a tramp, and Silver Maid.
The narrow print is wide enough for these:
But here: "Reported missing" ... the type fails,
The column breaks for white and angry seas,
The jagged spars thrust through, and flapping sails
Flagging farewells to wind and sky and shore,
Arrive at silent ports, and leave no more.
ARTICULATION
With what bright symbols have we learned, at last,
To write the epic of the tender Springs!—
We, who were dumb so many centuries past,
Who found no word for frail and lovely things.
In tongue-tied wonder at the blossoming earth,
We watched the trailing seasons loiter by,
Too inarticulate of their transient worth,
Beyond the saddened utterance of a sigh.
What Aprils taught us, children at the knee,
Word by slow word, the language April knows!
What Summers broke that brooding reverie,
Through patient iterations of the rose!—
Ah, dearest tutors of our lisping-time,
Today we bring you of our brightest rhyme.