MY SHIPS HAVE COME FROM SEA.

You are watching a ship, O, maiden fair, With parted lips and wistful air, The ship that out from the sheltered bay With white sails spread moves slow away; And I know, my girl, the thoughts that burn In your heart are of ship's return. Ah! I know so well how your pulses beat, With the great sea sobbing at your feet; And the yellow stars in southern skies Are brighter not than your love-bright eyes. I, too, have stood on the sea-wet sand And tearful waved a farewell hand, And watched with many a longing prayer. My face, like yours, was young and fair, And my eyes were bright as the diamond's glow; They've lost their sparkle—long ago. I stand along on the beach to-day, Watching the ships that sail away; But never a sail from over the sea The flowing tide will bring to me, My ships have come from sea.

The first was builded with childish hand, It floated away a castle grand— A beautiful bubble with rainbow hues, Lined with the crystal of morning dews; To break at my feet by the sunny sea, A beautiful bubble came back to me— Came back from my ship at sea.

I fashioned another in gladsome way And sent it forth on a Summer day. I see it yet, a fairer craft, Never at danger mocking laughed; Its shrouds were the sheen of happy hours, Its helm a wreath of orange flowrs; And I freighted it down with love and truth, The golden hopes of my sunny youth. Had it lived the storm—but it could not be, A stranded wreck on the surf-washed lea, My ship came home from sea.

And then a smiling fairy bark, A fragile, precious-freighted ark, Out on life's ocean drear and dark. And I prayed to God as I never before, To shield this back from the tempest's roar, To spare me this—but it could not be, A tiny coffin came back to me— Came back from my ship at sea.

With reckless hand I launched again, A venture on the treacherous main, Bound for ambition's dizzy court; Sailed from a hopeless, loveless port; With gloomy walls whose silence chilled, With ghostly haunting memories filled, With never a breath of the roses dead; Never a rest for a weary head, Never a dream of a sweet to be, Hopeless, loveless still, to me, My ship came home from sea.

The last, and least, of all the ships Fashioned with hands, and heart, and lips, I pushed from shore with its decks untrod And the freight it bore was my faith in God. I recked not whither its way, nor when, Nor how, if ever, 'twould come again, And this, alone, came back to me, Rich-laden from the stormy sea. And so, sweet maiden, while your dreams Paint fairest all that fairest seems, I stand with you and watch to-day The ship that sails form the shore away; But never a sail from over the sea The flowing tide will bring to me— My ships have come from sea.