| Poems by Women |
HASTINGS MILL
As I went down by Hastings Mill I lingered in my
going
To smell the smell of piled-up deals and feel the salt wind
blowing,
To hear the cables fret and creak and the ropes stir and
sigh
(Shipmate, my shipmate!) as in days gone by.
As I went down by Hastings Mill I saw a ship there lying,
About her tawny
yards the little clouds of sunset flying;
And half I took her for the ghost
of one I used to know
(Shipmate, my shipmate!) many years ago.
As I went down by Hastings Mill I saw while I stood dreaming
The flicker
of her riding light along the ripples streaming,
The bollards where we made
her fast and the berth where she did lie
(Shipmate, my shipmate!) in the days
gone by.
As I went down by Hastings Mill I heard a fellow singing,
Chipping off the
deep sea rust above the tide a-swinging,
And well I knew the queer old tune
and well the song he sung
(Shipmate, my shipmate!) when the world was young.
And past the rowdy Union Wharf, and by the still tide sleeping,
To a randy
dandy deep sea tune my heart in time was keeping,
To the thin far sound of a
shadowy watch a-hauling,
And the voice of one I knew across the high tide
calling
(Shipmate, my shipmate!) and the late dusk falling!
From: Stevenson, Burton Egbert.
The Home Book of Verse.
The poet's name is given in this collection as Cecily Fox-Smith, while the poet preferred Cecily Fox Smith.
This poet:
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This collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis.
Collection © 1999-2002 Jone Johnson Lewis.
Citing poems from these pages:
| Author. "Poem Title." Women's History: Poems by Women. Jone Johnson Lewis, editor. URL: (date of logon) |
