John Masefield

I hold that when a person dies His soul returns again to earth;
Arrayed in some new flesh-disguise Another mother gives him birth
With sturdier limbs and brighter brain The old soul takes the road again
Such is my own belief and tru...

This is a sacred city built of marvellous earth
Life was lived nobly here to give such beauty birth
Beauty was in this brain and in this eager hand: Death is so blind and dumb Death does not understand
Death drifts the brain with du...

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,

When I am buried, all my thoughts and acts Will be reduced to lists of dates and facts, And long before this wandering flesh is rotten The dates which made me will be all forgotten; And none will know the gleam there used to be About the feast day...

I Four bells were struck, the watch was called on deck,
All work aboard was over for the hour,
And some men sang and others played at check,
Or mended clothes or watched the sunset glower

“When I’m discharged at Liverpool ‘n’ draws my bit o’ pay,
I won’t come to sea no more;
I’ll court a pretty little lass ‘n’ have a weddin’ day,‘N’ settle somewhere down shore;
I’ll never fare to sea again a-temptin’ Davy Jones,

Troy Town is covered up with weeds,
The rabbits and the pismires
On broken gold, and shards, and
Where Priam's ancient palace stood