The Ships of the Sea

Into port when the sun was setting
Rode the ship that bore my love,
Over the breakers wildly fretting,
Under the skies that shone above.

Down to the beach I ran to meet him;
He would come as he had said:
And he came--in a sailor's coffin,
Dead!...

O the ships of the sea! the women
They from all hope but Heaven part!
The tide has nothing now to tell me,
The breakers only break my heart!