builded with childish hand, It floated away a castle grand— A beautiful bubble with rainbow hues, Lined with the crystal of morning dews; To break at my feet by the sunny sea, A beautiful bubble came back to me—       Came back from my ship at sea. 

I fashioned another in gladsome way And sent it forth on a Summer day. I see it yet, a fairer craft, Never at danger mocking laughed; Its shrouds were the sheen of happy hours, Its helm a wreath of orange flowrs; And I freighted it down with love and truth, The golden hopes of my sunny youth. Had it lived the storm—but it could not be, A stranded wreck on the surf-washed lea, My ship came home from sea. 

And then a smiling fairy bark, A fragile, precious-freighted ark, Out on life's ocean drear and dark. And I prayed to God as I never before, To shield this back from the tempest's roar, To spare me this—but it could not be, A tiny coffin came back to me—       Came back from my ship at sea. 

With reckless hand I launched again, A venture on the treacherous main, Bound for ambition's dizzy court; Sailed from a hopeless, loveless port; With gloomy walls whose silence chilled, With ghostly haunting memories filled, With never a breath of the roses dead; Never a rest for a weary head, Never a dream of a sweet to be, Hopeless, loveless still, to me, My ship came home from sea. 

The last, and least, of all the ships Fashioned with hands, and heart, and lips, I pushed from shore with its decks untrod And the freight it bore was my faith in God. I recked not whither its way, nor when, Nor how, if ever, 'twould come again, And this, alone, came back to me, Rich-laden from the stormy sea. And so, sweet maiden, while your dreams Paint fairest all that fairest seems, I stand with you and watch to-day The ship that sails form the shore away; But never a sail from over the sea The flowing tide will bring to me—       My ships have come from sea. My ships have come from sea. 

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