Shipmate Sorrow
Cicely Fox Smith 1882 (Lymm, Cheshire) – 1954 (Bow, Devon)
I was shipmates with Sorrow in a day gone by;
We shared the wheel and look-out, old Sorrow and I:
Good times and bad times, foul weather and fair,
The old grey face of him was always there.
There was never shanty raised there, never song I heard,
But his voice would be in it like a crying bird;
I was dull in the dog watches when the laugh went free
Because of old Sorrow sitting down by me.
I thought I could lose him in the stir and change
Of bright wicked cities all sunlit and strange;
There came a hand at my elbow and a voice in my ear -
It was patient Sorrow saying: 'Lad, I'm here!'
And by the bustling harbour, up the busy street,
Many a time I see him, many a time I meet
The old grey face there of one I used to know . . .
And it's old shipmate Sorrow out of long ago.
And the watch at the halliards, they may sing with a will,
But the voice I used to hear, oh I think I hear it still,
Like the wind in a shroud piping, or a seabird's cry . . .
And it's old Sorrow singing out of times gone by!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 102 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIAA |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 995 |
Words | 210 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Shipmate Sorrow" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/42760/shipmate-sorrow>.
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