The Writings of Oscar Wilde/Volume 1/A Fragment
A FRAGMENT.
[It is not generally known that the poem composed by Mr. Oscar Wilde for the Shakespearean Show Book was originally conceived as an address to Miss Terry on her departure from America. For reasons which we are not at liberty to divulge, it was deemed wiser to reconstruct it and give it in the form of a serenade to an indefinite object of worship. We have, however, been enabled to rescue two of the original stanzas, which will be read with much interest. Mr. Wilde's apostrophe to the " ship that shakes on the desolate sea " has been much criticised; but a little reflection will show us that the expression is eminently appropriate, referring, as it does, to the vibratory and very unpleasant motion of a screw steamship. The rescued stanzas run as follows:]
Beautiful star with the crimson lips
And flagrant daffodil hair,
Come back, come back, in the shaking ships
O'er the much-overrated sea,
To the hearts that are sick for thee
With a woe worse than mal de mer
beautiful star with the crimson lips
And the flagrant daffodil hair.
O ship that shakes on the desolate sea,
Neath the flag of the wan White Star,
Thou oringest a brighter star with thee
From the land of the Philistine,
Where Niagara's reckoned fine
And Tupper is popular
ship that shakes on the desolate sea,
Neath the flag of the wan White Star.
From The Pall Mall Gazette, 1884.