Page:Main Street and other poems, Kilmer, 1917.djvu/80

MAIN STREET AND OTHER POEMS THE WHITE SHIPS AND THE RED

(For Alden March)

ITH drooping sail and pennant

That never a wind may reach,

They float in sunless waters

Beside a sunless beach.

Their mighty masts and funnels

Are white as driven snow,

And with a pallid radiance

Their ghostly bulwarks glow.

Here is a Spanish galleon

That once with gold was gay,

Here is a Roman trireme

Whose hues outshone the day.

But Tyrian dyes have faded,

And prows that once were bright

With rainbow stains wear only

Death's livid, dreadful white.

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