SHIPS THAT DEPART.

New Zealand Tablet, 24 February 1921, Page 37

SHIPS THAT DEPART.

‘Les bateaux sur lesquels on ne s’embarque pas.” Ships that depart and leave us on the shore • Are bound * for joyous towns and flowery vales And speed along smooth-lapping seas before ,W J Soft winds that softly lift the humming sails. Into the rosy mists of rising morn They fade; and after them, like to a stream Of eager sea-fowl, flutters'to the bourne How many a wing of vague and wistful dream! Whither? Ah, ..who can tell that, other world? But surely those untrodden isles are fair, Pleasant the cove where sail and wing are furled Greener the hills, redder the roses—there? ’ And yet—did we pursue the ship, the dream, The old unrest would vex the sea, the .frown Gather.on heaven no fairy isle would gleam, But only barren shore and grimy town. Is then the voyage vain; no more it yields -*- ; Than the old ugliness the old life wore Ah vain • They . only , find Elysian . fields .... Ships that depart and leave us on the shore. —O’Neill, in Studies. From the French of “L’Ami Chantre.”