The winds blow hard up here,

And makes the rigging hum a song -

I'll just crouch down behind the rail

And watch the sailors petter round below.

It's high, but I must have no fear.

Twas Lady Isabella, Gracious Queen,

Who told me that, last thing she said

Before I came away and left the court,

To be the boy for this great Captain

On his voyage across the world.

Such a holiday was never seen at home

As when we left the harbor

Where the sun-light shone on many-colored roofs

And cannons boomed, and people shouted,

And the yellow flag of Spain

Decked all the ships. The crashing foam

Flings high at bow. We've lost all sight

Of land, and only trackless waste

Spreads out to where the edge of earth

Will see the utter loss of all his ships.

But no, that's only talk, and Lady Isabelle

Bade me have no fear

No matter what the dangers faced.

The great sails belly out, and now we sway

Till only ocean is below me, and the Santa's deck

Seems small, and men who scurry

And work the ropes, lose in the wind

Their shouts. And on the after deck

The Captain stands and looks away

To where the water meets the sky,

And oft consults a chart, and keeps an eye

Upon the ship, from bow that dips into the wave

To where Spain's banner floats on high

'twas only yestereve, that in the cabin

While I served, the Captain talked

As with another, yet no one was there.

He spoke of ways to China, and the gold

And cloth and spices, and he walked

And murmured to himself. Alight

Was in his eyes. As in a dream

He paced the floor and with himself communed .

And that was he who just that morn

Had struck a sailor down who seemed to doubt the voyage

And fear its end

In strange uncharted seas. The Captain

Fears not evil beasts, they say

Swim in those seas. And I shall send

To Spain and Lady Isabelle

A gift, a wondrous Chinese gift

That I will when we shall tie our ship

To Cathay's wharves. I long to see

That land. to view with my own eyes

The sights of which travellers tell

And when we come to Spain once more

How men will flock around

To hear my tale and see my goods

From China and How vastly more

They'll praise and fete the Captain,

Who has sailed for week on week

Far out of sight of land or shore.

I think I must go down. I see

The cabin master looking round. .

But I'll remember how to get here

And I'll make this nest a place

To come think, and watch the sky

And sea, and when we've found

Cathay, and turn again toward Spain,

And are all happy, and the hold

Is full of treasures, I shall come here

To look across the sea again

Towards home, beyond the everlasting

Mighty ocean's surging roll.