The Last Watch

Comrades, comrades, have me buried     Like a warrior of the sea,     With a flag across my breast     And my sword upon my knee.     Steering out from vanished headlands     For a harbor on no chart,     With the winter in the rigging,     With the ice-wind in my heart,     Down the bournless slopes of sea-room,     With the long gray wake behind,     I have sailed my cruiser steady     With no pilot but the wind.     Battling with relentless pirates     From the lower seas of Doom,     I have kept the colors flying     Through the roar of drift and gloom.     Scudding where the shadow foemen     Hang about us grim and stark,     Broken spars and shredded canvas,     We are racing for the dark.     Sped and blown abaft the sunset     Like a shriek the storm has caught;     But the helm is lashed to windward,     And the sails are sheeted taut.     Comrades, comrades, have me buried     Like a warrior of the night.     I can hear the bell-buoy calling     Down below the harbor light     Steer in shoreward, loose the signal,     The last watch has been cut short;     Speak me kindly to the islesmen,     When we make the foreign port.     We shall make it ere the morning     Rolls the fog from strait and bluff;     Where the offing crimsons eastward     There is anchorage enough.     How I wander in my dreaming!     Are we northing nearer home,     Or outbound for fresh adventure     On the reeling plains of foam?     North I think it is, my comrades,     Where one heart-beat counts for ten,     Where the loving hand is loyal,     And the women's sons are men;     Where the red auroras tremble     When the polar night is still,     Lighting home the worn seafarers     To their haven in the hill.     Comrades, comrades, have me buried     Like a warrior of the North.     Lower me the long-boat, stay me     In your arms, and bear me forth;     Lay me in the sheets and row me,     With the tiller in my hand,     Row me in below the beacon     Where my sea-dogs used to land.     Has your captain lost his cunning     After leading you so far?     Row me your last league, my sea-kings;     It is safe within the bar.     Shoulder me and house me hillward,     Where the field-lark makes his bed,     So the gulls can wheel above me,     All day long when I am dead;     Where the keening wind can find me     With the April rain for guide,     And come crooning her old stories     Of the kingdoms of the tide.     Comrades, comrades, have me buried     Like a warrior of the sun;     I have carried my sealed orders     Till the last command is done.     Kiss me on the cheek for courage,     (There is none to greet me home,)     Then farewell to your old lover     Of the thunder of the foam;     For the grass is full of slumber     In the twilight world for me,     And my tired hands are slackened     From their toiling on the sea.