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Christmas at Sea · Ririro.com - Poetry

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  Speaker 1: Christmas at sea, the sheets were frozen hard, and they
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  Speaker 1: cut the naked hand. The decks were like a slide
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  Speaker 1: where a seaman scarce could stand. The wind was a
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  Speaker 1: nor wester blowing squally off the sea, and cliffs and
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  Speaker 1: spouting breakers were the only things alee. They heard the
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  Speaker 1: surf a roaring before the break of day, but twas
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  Speaker 1: only with the peep of light we saw how ill
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  Speaker 1: we lay. We tumbled every hand on deck instant he
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  Speaker 1: with a shout, and we gave her the main topsail
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  Speaker 1: and stood by to go about. All day we tacked
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  Speaker 1: and tacked between the south head and the north All
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  Speaker 1: day we hauled the frozen sheets, and got no further forth.
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  Speaker 1: All day, as cold as charity, in bitter pain and
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  Speaker 1: dread for very life and nature, we tacked from head
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  Speaker 1: to head. We gave the south a wider berth, for
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  Speaker 1: there the tide race roared. But every tack we made
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  Speaker 1: we brought the north head close aboard so's we saw
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  Speaker 1: the cliffs and houses, and the breakers running high, and
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  Speaker 1: the coast guard in his garden with his glass against
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  Speaker 1: his eye. The frost was on the village roofs, as
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  Speaker 1: white as ocean foam, the good red fires were burning
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  Speaker 1: bright in every longshore home. The windows sparkled clear, and
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  Speaker 1: the chimneys volleyed out, And I vow we sniffed the victuals.
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  Speaker 1: As the vessel went about. The bells upon the church
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  Speaker 1: were rung with a mighty jovial cheer. For it's just
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  Speaker 1: that I should tell you how of all days in
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  Speaker 1: the year, this day of our adversity was blessed Christmas morn.
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  Speaker 1: And the house above the coast guards was the house
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  Speaker 1: where I was born. Oh, well, I saw the pleasant room,
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  Speaker 1: the pleasant faces there, my mother's silver spectacles, my father's
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  Speaker 1: silver hair. And well I saw the firelight like a
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  Speaker 1: flight of homely elves go dancing round the china plates
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  Speaker 1: that stand upon the shelves. And well I knew the
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  Speaker 1: talk they had, the talk that was of me, of
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  Speaker 1: the shadow on the household, and the sun that went
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  Speaker 1: to sea. And oh, the wicked fool I seemed in
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  Speaker 1: every kind of way to be here and hauling frozen ropes.
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  Speaker 1: On blessed Christmas day. They lit the high sea light,
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  Speaker 1: and the dark began to fall, all hands to loose
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  Speaker 1: to gallant sails. I heard the captain call by the
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  Speaker 1: Lord she'll never stand it. Our first mate, Jackson, cried.
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  Speaker 1: It's the one way or the other. Mister Jackson, he replied.
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  Speaker 1: She staggered to her bearings, but the sails were new
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  Speaker 1: and good, and the ship smelt up to windward, just
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  Speaker 1: as though she understood, as the winter's day was ending.
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  Speaker 1: In the entry of the night, we cleared the weary
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  Speaker 1: headland and passed below the light, and they heaved a
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  Speaker 1: mighty breath, every soul on board, but me, as they
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  Speaker 1: saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea. But
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  Speaker 1: all that I could think of, in the darkness and
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  Speaker 1: the cold, was just that I was leaving home, and
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  Speaker 1: my folks were growing old.