The Sea Shell Boat
How now, little maid, in your bonnet arrayed
With that quaint little shell in your hand!
Not a shell but a boat? Ah, I see, let it float
Far away from these mountains of sand.
It will sail so I’m told, down the pathway of gold
Where the sun paves the sea with its beams,
To some fortunate isle where the skies ever smile
Upon childhood’s endeavors and dreams.
But, Honey, don’t cry if it sinks bye and bye
Like a fluttering bird to its nest;
For the wild waves at play in their blundering way,
Like the oncoming years never rest.
My hopes were aglow in the long, long ago
When my own little ship left the shore;
But my hair has grown grey since it drifted away
And it never came back any more!