For, down a cruel ice-lane, So dealt God's waters with us Let go, let go the anchors; Ah, fools were we and blind- Coastwise-cross-seas-round the world and back again, THE SONG OF DIEGO VALDEZ 1902 THE God of Fair Beginnings Hath prospered here my hand The cargoes of my lading, And the keels of my command. For out of many ventures That sailed with hope as high, My own have made the better trade, And Admiral am I. To me my King's much honour, To me the mob's refrain:— But I remember comrades- A thousand leagues to south'ard Then they that found good liquor, They told us every one, Or secret shoals between, When, weary from far voyage, We gathered to careen. There burned our breaming-fagots All pale along the shore: There rose our worn pavilions— A sail above an oar: As flashed each yearning anchor Where lay our loosened harness? Where turned our naked feet? Whose tavern 'mid the palm-trees? What quenchings of what heat? Oh fountain in the desert! Oh cistern in the waste! Oh bread we ate in secret! The youth new-taught of longing, Desire not more their quittance I dreamed to wait my pleasure Till, first in face of Fortune, And last in mazed disdain, I made Diego Valdez High Admiral of Spain. Then walked no wind 'neath Heaven Nor surge that did not aid— I dared extreme occasion, Nor ever one betrayed. They wrought a deeper treason- To bondage of great deeds. The tempest flung me seaward, Yet 'spite my tyrant triumphs But, crowned by Fleet and People, To rob me of my hope. No prayer of mine shall move him, The Lord of Sixty Pennants But not Diego Valdez, High Admiral of Spain. There walks no wind 'neath Heaven The old careening riot And the clamorous, crowded shore The fountain in the desert, The cistern in the waste, Now call I to my Captains- To me the straiter prison, To me the heavier chain To me Diego Valdez, High Admiral of Spain! THE SECOND VOYAGE 1903 WE'VE sent our little Cupids all ashore— They were frightened, they were tired, they were cold: Our sails of silk and purple go to store, And we've cut away our mast of beaten gold (Foul weather!) Oh 'tis hemp and singing pine for to stand against the brine, But Love he is our master as of old! The sea has shorn our galleries away, The salt has soiled our gilding past remede; And the Doves of Venus fled and the petrels came instead, |