| Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Second Book of Modern Verse. 1922. |
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| Old Ships |
| | | David Morton |
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| THERE is a memory stays upon old ships, | |
| A weightless cargo in the musty hold,— | |
| Of bright lagoons and prow-caressing lips, | |
| Of stormy midnights,—and a tale untold. | |
| They have remembered islands in the dawn, | 5 |
| And windy capes that tried their slender spars, | |
| And tortuous channels where their keels have gone, | |
| And calm blue nights of stillness and the stars. | |
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| Ah, never think that ships forget a shore, | |
| Or bitter seas, or winds that made them wise; | 10 |
| There is a dream upon them, evermore;— | |
| And there be some who say that sunk ships rise | |
| To seek familiar harbors in the night, | |
| Blowing in mists, their spectral sails like light. | |
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