THE OLD SHIP

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1797, 15 August 1906, Page 56

THE OLD SHIP

The old ship rides in a sheltered bay. Red rust on her bulwarks and rails. Her rigging and spans have gone to de» cay, And tern are her storm -beaten sails. Tiro’ sweet girlish voices a-singing, No longer the old ship hears. Clear sounds of their laughter ringing. Float ever the dim past years. The old ship travelled the waterway®, When life ran sweet and fast, (O, rose-hued tints of early days Ye were too fair to last). Over brave blue seas extended, Where gleaming dolphins leap, And dawn-lit skies are splendid, The old ship sailed the deep. The old ship sailed where the Trad® winds croon, And love was part of her freight, 'Neath shadowy sails in the waning moon, 'Twas often we’d linger and wait. Or 'mid hush of the sunset golden, On deck in the twilight we stayed, For a love that has lapsed and grown olden, For the love of a bright-eyed maid. The old ship swings at her rusty chain. And rolls on the offshore swell, lint we never may know the pleasui® again, And the joys of an old love spell. We may hear the light footsteps a-falU ing, As of old on the planks overhead. Yet those joys are beyond all When the loves of onr youth lie dead! -W. BROOKE.