Songs of the Fleet - The Middle Watch

In a blue dusk the ship astern             Uplifts her slender spars,         With golden lights that seem to burn             Among the silver stars.         Like fleets along a cloudy shore             The constellations creep,         Like planets on the ocean floor             Our silent course we keep.                 And over the endless plain,                     Out of the night forlorn                 Rises a faint refrain,                     A song of the day to be born--                 Watch, oh watch till ye find again                     Life and the land of morn.         From a dim West to a dark East             Our lines unwavering head,         As if their motion long had ceased             And Time itself were dead.         Vainly we watch the deep below,             Vainly the void above,         They died a thousand years ago--             Life and the land we love.                 But over the endless plain,                     Out of the night forlorn                 Rises a faint refrain,                     A song of the day to be born--                 Watch, oh watch till ye find again                     Life and the land of morn.