History & Politics
Sail On, Sail On
From Irish Melodies
Sail on, sail on, thou fearless bark--
Wherever blows the welcome wind,
It cannot lead to scenes more dark,
More sad than those we leave behind.
Each wave that passes seems to say,
"Tho' death beneath our smile may be,
Less cold we are, less false than they,
Whose smiling wrecked thy hopes and thee."
Sail on, sail on,--thro' endless space--
Thro' calm--thro' tempest--stop no more:
The stormiest sea's a resting place
To him who leaves such hearts on shore.
Or--if some desert land we meet,
Where never yet false-hearted men
Profaned a world, that else were sweet,--
Then rest thee, bark, but not till then.
Cite this poem
MLA
Moore, Thomas. “Sail On, Sail On.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/moore/30/.
Chicago
Moore, Thomas. “Sail On, Sail On.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/moore/30/.
Read this poem with the Codex →