Crossing the Bar
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar, . . .
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar, . . .
If I when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping . . .
I would my soul were like the bird
That dares the vastness undeterred.
Look, where the bluebird on the bough . . .
Then came the darker sooner,
came the later lower.
We were no longer a sweeter-here . . .
Every morning since the time changed
I have woken to the dawn chorus
And even before it sounded, I dreamed of it . . .
O the days gone by! O the days gone by!
The apples in the orchard, and the pathway through the rye;
The chirrup of the robin, and the whistle of the quail . . .
So by sixteen we move in packs
learn to strut and slide
in deliberate lowdown rhythm . . .
I am a feather on the bright sky
I am the blue horse that runs in the plain
I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water . . .
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
. . .
My mind’s a map. A mad sea-captain drew it
Under a flowing moon until he knew it;
Winds with brass trumpets, puffy-cheeked as jugs, . . .