THE FIRST VISIT OF THE ‘QUEEN MARY’, 1936

Posted by Admin on 27 January 2008, 12:00 am

About three hundred years ago
some dauntless heroes planned
to venture forth in the Ark and Dove
in search of a distant land.

These gallant yet puny ships
on mast and sail relied,
and their courses lost or kept
at the will of the wind and tide.

Today to us there comes,
from the land of the purple heather,
a royal ship with a royal name
that will fear not any weather.

Below in the engine room
where refulgent handwheels gleam
the all-powerful turbines hum
as they drink in the potent steam.

The crew no more endure
discomfort at risk of their lives,
but the spirit that manned the Ark and Dove
is a thing which still survives.

T. C. Hudson
1936

© T. C. Hudson.

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