Lovely is the white town, and smiling it lies <br />With little green gardens underneath the blue skies, <br />Days so full of sunshine, nights so full of glee, - <br />Oh, a fair place, a rare place, for sailors in from sea. <br /> <br />A pleasant place to come to for ships long from land, <br />A bright place, a light place, with mirth on every hand, <br />Is the white smiling city by the blue Pacific shore . . . <br />And I wish in my heart I may never see it more. <br /> <br />There's a wide white plaza where folks pass to and fro, <br />And a drowsy tune sounding on all the winds that blow, <br />Church-bells all the morning, fiddles all the night . . . <br />Oh, a neat place, a sweet place, for sailormen's delight! <br /> <br />But it's heave and break her out . . . and the best tune of all <br />Is the rattle of the windlass, the clicking of the pawl, <br />And the steady wind a-blowing, yes, blowing off the shore, <br />From the white smiling city that I would see no more. <br /> <br />For cruel is the white town for all it looks so fair, <br />There's a cloud upon the sunshine and there's sorrow everywhere, <br />And blue as Mary Mother's robe the sea is and the sky . . . <br />But a bitter hate I'll bear it until the day I die!<br /><br />Cicely Fox Smith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sailor-s-farewell/
