Ships are homing in for winter harbor
Now the sun is past its evening glow
Far in northern reaches where there's naught
Save endless ice and glaciers and snow.
That great red ball sinks fast 'neath heavy sky,
Rests briefly then retreats into the mist.
When the clouds cast wide their feathered wings
Land and sea become their haziest
The dim light hiding them in such a way
Their captains cannot see the icebergs' ends
Nor where the earth and sea together lie;
All is obscure and all in air suspends.
Like floating phantom ships, they put to sea
Their ghostly forms adrift in salty main
And sometimes in the ocean's vast extremes
Are swallowed up and never seen again.