Page:Poems for the Sea.djvu/151

 TO A RETIRED SEAMAN.

How pleasant, when the toils of life, And ruder cares have pass'd away, To turn from troubled floods and gain The shelter of some quiet bay,

And there refit the shatter'd sails That time and chance have sorely tried, And meditate, as peaceful years Glide on, to meet the eternal tide.

Tis thus with thee, whose course hath been O'er many a sea and many a shore, Where battle thunders shook the main Or winds and waves in conflict roar.