Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VI. Fancy. 1904. | | | | Poems of Fancy: III. Mythical: Mystical: Legendary | | Outward Bound | | Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) |
| | | I LEAVE behind me the elm-shadowed square | |
| And carven portals of the silent street, | |
| And wander on with listless, vagrant feet | |
| Through seaward-leading alleys, till the air | |
| Smells of the sea, and straightway then the care | 5 |
| Slips from my heart, and life once more is sweet. | |
| At the lane’s ending lie the white-winged fleet. | |
| O restless Fancy, whither wouldst thou fare? | |
| Here are brave pinions that shall take thee far— | |
| Gaunt hulks of Norway; ships of red Ceylon; | 10 |
| Slim-masted lovers of the blue Azores! | |
| ’T is but an instant hence to Zanzibar, | |
| Or to the regions of the Midnight Sun. | |
| Ionian isles are thine, and all the fairy shores! | | | | |
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