Explore "Ships" by Virna Sheard on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The great grey ships! We saw them in our dreaming, / The strong grey ships -- the ships of our desire, / Watched by the stars, and by the dawn's white gleaming, / And followed by the winds that never tire.
O, but we trusted them through days of weeping, / Blessed them each one, and bid each one depart / With all the brave we gave into its keeping, / The priceless, garnered treasure of the heart!
Long, long they haunted us when gales were blowing, -- / Dim wraiths of ships, like shadows in the rain; -- / Little we slept on winter nights of snowing, / Thinking of those who might not sail again.
Yet -- dear grey ships -- the spirits of the fearless, / Lost many a day beneath the deepest blue, -- / The souls of mighty sailors, bright and tearless, / Arose from out the sea to sail with you.
And not alone you kept your banners flying, -- / And not alone you met each bitter day, -- / For dauntless ones, -- unseen, and death-defying, / Swept outward with you on your darkened way!