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To The Ship Of State

By Eugene Field

Topics: classic

O ship of state     Shall new winds bear you back upon the sea?     What are you doing? Seek the harbor's lee     Ere 't is too late!     Do you bemoan     Your side was stripped of oarage in the blast?     Swift Africus has weakened, too, your mast;     The sailyards groan.     Of cables bare,     Your keel can scarce endure the lordly wave.     Your sails are rent; you have no gods to save,     Or answer pray'r.     Though Pontic pine,     The noble daughter of a far-famed wood,     You boast your lineage and title good,--     A useless line!     The sailor there     In painted sterns no reassurance finds;     Unless you owe derision to the winds,     Beware--beware!     My grief erewhile,     But now my care--my longing! shun the seas     That flow between the gleaming Cyclades,     Each shining isle.

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"O ship of state..."

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Author:Eugene Field

"O ship of state..." by Eugene Field

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Eugene Field

About Eugene Field

Eugene Field (1850–1895) was an American writer and poet known as the "children's poet." His poems "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" and "Little Boy Blue" are cherished classics of American children's literature.

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