MY BOAT AND I
by: Mary Aldis
- y staunch little boat is tugging at its moorings
- Eager to be free,
- Eager to slip out on the great waters
- Beyond the returning tides,
- Out to the unknown sea.
- My staunch little boat, unwilling prisoner,
- Frets and pulls at the anchor chain
- While the wind calls,
- "Come! come!
- I will bear you
- Out to the unknown sea!"
- Long time my boat and I have plied the harbour
- On little busy journeyings intent,
- Long time with wistful gazing
- I have listened to the calling--
- The winds with buffeting caress,
- The waves with ceaseless urge--
- Calling "Rest, rest, rest,
- Rest on an unknown sea."
- And now we are away
- Into the mystery.
- Quietly the swaying waters
- Rock and beguile and soothe us
- That we may not know
- We are so far away.
- Along the shore
- Are hands stretched out.
- What would you with me now,
- Oh pleading hands?
- I come not to you any more,
- I have set my sail
- Out to the unknown sea,
- Would you have me stay adventuring?
- Would you have me come again
- To be amidst you
- With alien eyes and a heart unquiet?
- Oh cease your crying!
- I come not back.
- Long time my little boat and I
- Have fretted at the mooring,
- Long time we have looked out beyond the bar
- With a great questioning, and a great wonder,
- And then, an hour came which held the parting
- And we slipped
- Out, out, to the unknown sea.
- * * *
- The hands stretched out have faded from my sight,
- The shore is dim,
- The mountains fade into the limitless blue,
- Only the wind and the sea companion me,
- Singing
- "Rest, rest, rest,
- Rest on an unknown sea."
"My Boat and I" is reprinted from Flashlights. Mary Aldis. New York: Duffield & Company, 1916. |
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