Salt-Water Poems and Ballads (Masefield, 1916)/The Golden City of St. Mary
THE GOLDEN CITY OF ST. MARY
Out beyond the sunset, could I but find the way,Is a sleepy blue laguna which widens to a bay,And there's the Blessed City—so the sailors say—The Golden City of St. Mary.
It's built of fair marble—white—without a stain,And in the cool twilight when the sea-winds waneThe bells chime faintly, like a soft, warm rain,In the Golden City of St. Mary.
Among the green palm-trees where the fire-flies shine,Are the white tavern tables where the gallants dine,Singing slow Spanish songs like old mulled wine,In the Golden City of St. Mary.
Oh I'll be shipping sunset-wards and westward-hoThrough the green toppling combers a-shattering into snow,Till I come to quiet moorings and a watch below,In the Golden City of St. Mary.