475. The Old Ships by James Elroy Flecker
R Herrick read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\n\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\n\n---------------------------------------\n\nThe Old Ships\nby James Elroy Flecker (1884 - 1915)\n\nI have seen old ships like swans asleep\nBeyond the village which men call Tyre,\nWith leaden age o'ercargoed, dipping deep\nFor Famagusta and the hidden sun\nThat rings black Cyprus with a lake of fire;\nAnd all those ships were certainly so old\nWho knows how oft with squat and noisy gun,\nQuesting brown slaves or Syrian oranges,\nThe pirate Genoese\nHell-raked them till they rolled\nBlood, water, fruit and corpses up the hold.\nBut now through friendly seas they softly run,\nPainted the mid-sea blue or shore-sea green,\nStill patterned with the vine and grapes in gold.\n\nBut I have seen,\nPointing her shapely shadows from the dawn\nAnd image tumbed on a rose-swept bay,\nA drowsy ship of some yet older day;\nAnd, wonder's breath indrawn,\nThought I - who knows - who knows - but in that same\n(Fished up beyond \xc6\xe6a, patched up new\n- Stern painted brighter blue -)\nThat talkative, bald-headed seaman came\n(Twelve patient comrades sweating at the oar)\nFrom Troy's doom-crimson shore,\nAnd with great lies about his wooden horse\nSet the crew laughing, and forgot his course.\n\nIt was so old a ship - who knows, who knows?\n- And yet so beautiful, I watched in vain\nTo see the mast burst open with a rose,\nAnd the whole deck put on its leaves again.\n\nFirst aired: 21 March 2008\n\nFor hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index.\n\nReading \xa9 Classic Poetry Aloud 2009