Cargoes

Deborah’s post on party pieces – poems you could recite by heart – prompted last Friday’s poem and subsequent comments on her post reminded me that in the dark recesses of my memory there were some poems, learned by rote at high school.

Among them was Cargoes by John Mansfield.

                                Cargoes

Quinquireme of Ninevah from distant Ophir

Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,

With a cargo of Ivory

And apes and peacocks,

Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

 

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,

Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-grove shores,

With a cargo of diamond,

Emeralds, amethysts,

Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

 

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke-stack,

Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,

With a cargo of Tyne cola,

Road-rails, pig led,

Fire-wood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

 

              –  John Mansfiled –