475. The Old Ships by James Elroy Flecker
b"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"