Classic Poem

The sailor tells the children
His stories of the sea,
Their eyes look over the water
To where his wonders be:

The flowers as big as tea-cups,
The great big butterflies,
The long unfooted beaches
Where stored-up treasure lies.

More than a thousand islands
Each curved around its pool:
All kingdoms filled with sunlight,
Where no one goes to school;

The fish that leave the water
In sudden bends of light
The birds as blue as china;
The flies that gleam by night.

Till, slowly, I remember
A wistful place; and then, —
The story of that Kingdom
First told to longshoremen.