Page:Poems for the Sea.djvu/114

110 The snowy sail, and tossing flood So fill'd my boyish thought, And even at night, upon my bed, Strange visions spoke to me, And monsters play'd, and mermaids sung Wild carols of the sea.

My father bade me learn a trade, Or till the fallow land, And told how healthful toil would heap The silver in my hand; But at his Death, alas! I broke From all allegiance free, And though my widowed mother wept, I left her for the sea.

I've sail'd where arctic oceans spread, And icy mountains frown, And the fierce fire of tropic suns Hath turn'd my breast so brown, I've roam'd among the Indian isles, Where grows the spicy tree,