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1903
WE’VE sent our little Cupids all ashore— | |
| They were frightened, they were tired, they were cold: | |
| Our sails of silk and purple go to store, | |
| And we’ve cut away our mast of beaten gold | |
| (Foul weather!) | 5 |
| Oh ’tis hemp and singing pine for to stand against the brine, | |
| But Love he is our master as of old! | |
| |
| The sea has shorn our galleries away, | |
| The salt has soiled our gilding past remede; | |
| Our paint is flaked and blistered by the spray, | 10 |
| Our sides are half a fathom furred in weed | |
| (Foul weather!) | |
| And the Doves of Venus fled and the petrels came instead, | |
| But Love he was our master at our need! | |
| |
| ’Was Youth would keep no vigil at the bow, | 15 |
| ’Was Pleasure at the helm too drunk to steer— | |
| We’ve shipped three able quartermasters now. | |
| Men call them Custom, Reverence, and Fear | |
| (Foul weather!) | |
| They are old and scarred and plain, but we’ll run no risk again | 20 |
| From any Port o’ Paphos mutineer! | |
| |
| We seek no more the tempest for delight, | |
| We skirt no more the indraught and the shoal— | |
| We ask no more of any day or night | |
| Than to come with least adventure to our goal | 25 |
| (Foul weather!) | |
| What we find we needs must brook, but we do not go to look, | |
| Nor tempt the Lord our God that saved us whole. | |
| |
| Yet, caring so, not overmuch we care | |
| To brace and trim for every foolish blast, | 30 |
| If the squall be pleased to sweep us unaware, | |
| He may bellow off to leeward like the last | |
| (Foul weather!) | |
| We will blame it on the deep (for the watch must have their sleep), | |
| And Love can come and wake us when ’tis past. | 35 |
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| Oh launch them down with music from the beach, | |
| Oh warp them out with garlands from the quays— | |
| Most resolute—a damsel unto each— | |
| New prows that seek the old Hesperides! | |
| (Foul weather!) | 40 |
| Though we know their voyage is vain, yet we see our path again | |
| In the saffroned bridesails scenting all the seas! | |
| (Foul weather!) | |
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