Pictures in Rhyme/'Young Love unfurled his Silken Sail'

by Arthur Clark Kennedy

'YOUNG LOVE UNFURLED HIS SILKEN SAIL

Young love unfurled his silken sail,
And in his boat of ivory pale
Went sliding down the weather,
By sunny shores of golden isles,
Their hills o'ertopped for miles on miles
With ruddy helms of heather.

Over seas to a shady bay,
Where, lotus-locked, enchanted lay
He and his boat together,
Unwotting of the days that flew
In one long monotone of blue,
From waning summer's tether.

Till heaven darkened, and the rain,
Smoking athwart the watery plain,
Fell down with wintry weather;

Then, like a lark that upward flies,
Love swiftly lessened through the skies,
On winnowing feather.

But the poor boat drifts on, resigned
To furies of the wave and wind,

And wintry weather.