Farm Legends

Chapter 28: WHEN MY SHIP WENT DOWN.

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About This Book

A collection of poems and short verse sketches portraying rural life and its communities, alternating wry humor with sincere pathos as it records schoolroom scenes, farm characters, local rituals, college memories, and civic commemorations. Several pieces confront sudden disasters and personal bereavement while others offer hopeful reflection and moral admonition; occasional stanzas address public figures and scientific achievement. The work emphasizes dignity in humble lives and the small ironies of human nature, arranging its material into narrative ballads, elegies, commemorative poems, and lighter stray stanzas.

WHEN MY SHIP WENT DOWN.

Sank a palace in the sea,

When my ship went down;

Friends whose hearts were gold to me—

Gifts that ne'er again can be—

'Neath the waters brown.

There you lie, O Ship, to-day,

In the sand-bar stiff and gray!

You who proudly sailed away

From the splendid town.

II.

Now the ocean's bitter cup

Meets your trembling lip;

Now on deathly woes you sup;

And your humbled pride looks up

From Disaster's grip.

Ruin's nets around you weave;

But I have no time to grieve;

I will promptly, I believe,

Build another ship.