Classic Poem

Come , little one, and sit by me,
Your granny had a granny too,
And here we sat and watched the sea
Just like me and you.

And as we sat and watched the sails
Slipping past across the blue,
My granny told me her sea-tales,
The same I'm telling you.

She told me of the Spanish Main
And men who fought for faith and home
And singed the beard of the King of Spain
And clipped the wings of the Pope of Rome.

She told me of the men who swore
To find a home across the sea,
Where priest and king would vex no more
And honest men could still be free.

And ship by ship and name by name,
She told of many a famous fight,
And how in thunder and in flame
Your fathers battled for the right.

And then she told how wife and maid
Watched the sails go down and down,
And how they knelt and how they prayed
In Marblehead and Gloucester town.

She told me stories old and new,
And one, a story all our own:
For her, for me, and now for you —
For you to tell when you are grown:

Of how your granny's daddy stood
As keen and trusty as his sword,
When all along the yellow flood
The rebel cannon flashed and roared.

Come, little maid, and sit by me.
Your granny had a granny too,
Who told her stories of the sea
The same I tell to you.