VAGRANT VERSE

Southland Times, Issue 18827, 21 May 1920, Page 4

VAGRANT VERSE

THE GLORY OF SHIPS,

The glory of ships is an old, old song. Since the days when the sea-rovers ran In their open boats through the roaring surf, and the spread of the world began; The glory of ships is a light on the sea, and a star in the story of man.

When Homer sang of the galleys of Greece that conquered the Trojan shore, And Solomon lauded the barques of that brought great wealth to his door, 'Twas little they knew, those ancient men, what would come of the sail and the oar.

The Greek ships rescued the West from the East, when they harried the Persians home; And the Roman ships were the wings of strength that uore up the Empire, Rome; And the ships of Spain found a wide new world, far over the fields of foam.

Then the tribes of courage at last saw clear that the ocean was not a bound, But a broad highway and a challenge to seek for treasure as yet unfound; So the fearless ships fared forth to the search, in joy that the globe was round.

Their hulls were heightened, their sails spread out, they grew with the growth of their quest; They opened the secret doom of the East, and the golden gates of the West; And many a city of high renown was proud of a ship on its crest

Remember, O first of the maritime folk, how the rise of your greatness began. It will live if you safeguard the round-the-world road from the shame of a selfish ban ; For the glory of ships is a light on the sea. and a star in the story of man 1 —Henry van Dyke.