Page:Poems Allen.djvu/260

O, mine was a vessel of strength and truth,
 Her sails were white as a young lamb's fleece,
She sailed long since from the port of Youth,—
 Her master was Love and her name was Peace.

And, like all beloved and beauteous things,
 She faded in distance and doubt away,—
With only a tremble of snowy wings
 She floated, swan-like, adown the bay.

Carrying with her a precious freight,—
 All I had gathered by years of pain;
A tempting prize to the pirate, Fate,—
 And still I watch for her back again;—

Watch for the earliest morning light,
 Will the pale stars grieve o'er the dying day,
To catch the gleam of her canvas white
 Among the islands which gem the bay.

But she comes not yet,—she will never come
 To gladden my eyes and my spirit more;
And my heart grows hopeless and faint and dumb,
 As I wait and wait on the lonesome shore,