Classic Poem

The long tides sweep
Around its sleep,
The long red tides of Tantramar.
Around its dream
They hiss and stream,
Sad for the ships that have sailed afar.

How many lips
Have lost their bloom,
How many ships
Gone down to gloom,
Since keel and sail
Have fled out from me
Over the thunder and strain of the sea!

Its kale-dark sides
Throb in the tides;
The long winds over it spin and hum;
Its timbers ache
For memory's sake,
And the throngs that never again will come.

How many lips
Have lost their bloom,
How many ships
Gone down to gloom,
Since keel and sail
Have fled out from me
Over the thunder and strain of the sea!