Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/439

SPOKEN AT SEA Surely they know me as I am,—

Only a cuckoo, at the best,

Watching, careless of hate and shame,

To crouch myself in another's nest.

But the women,—how they flutter and flout,

The stupid, terribly virtuous wives,

If I but chance to move about

Or enter within their bustling hives!

Buz! buz! in the scandalous gatherings,

When a strange queen lights amid their throng,

And their tongues have a thousand angry stings

To send her travelling, right or wrong.

Well, the earth is wide and open to all,

And money and men are everywhere,

And, as I roam, 't will ill befall

If I do not gain my lawful share:

One drops off, but another will come

With as light a head and heavy a purse;

So long as I have the world for a home,

I'll take my fortune, better or worse!

SPOKEN AT SEA

THE LOG-BOOK OF THE STEAMSHIP VIRGINIA

hundred miles and more

From the stormy English shore,

All aright, the seventh night,

On her course our vessel bore.

Her lantern shone ahead,

And the green lamp and the red

To starboard and to larboard

Shot their light.

Close on the midnight call

What a mist began to fall, 409