On Looking Through My Poetry Book
(1957)

On looking through my poetry book
T'was a sheer delight to me,
To find so many verses
Have been written about the sea.

There's Masefield's poem "Sea Fever"
Already set to song,
And his graphic lines called "Cargoes"
Of the ships that coast along.

A sonnet by John Keats I saw,
Verses by Wordsworth too,
Lord Byron, Shelley and Tennyson
Poets both known and new.

What have I to offer then
The theme so well explored,
Perhaps I'll write of wrecks and sharks.
And beaming lightships moored.

Many ships have met their doom
And many men have died,
But there will always be brave men
Who'll weather wind and tide.

R. Rosser, 1C