Classic Poem

If you will look into my garden
Some autumn, you'll find your reward in
The sight of a flower-decked dory,
Of which I will now tell the story.

This dory was built on the plan
Approved by a sea-faring man;
She was built on the shore of Cape Ann.

At first she was painted dark green,
And indeed was the finest machine
Of her species that ever was seen.

Her qualities first were essayed in
A voyage she made for Menhaden,
From which she returned deeply laden.

There were bushels on bushels galore;
And the people who stood on the shore
Declared they had never seen more.

One time she was out with Luke Foster,
So long that the people of Gloucester
Were sure that the dory was lost, or
At least would be seen there no more.

But the dory was really all right,
And appeared full of fish before night.
The people rejoiced at the sight,
And praised her as never before.

You should see how Dan Ober set sail,
Before a sou-sou-western gale,
And never he needed a pail,
For there was not a spoonful to bail.

So well did the dory behave,
And so lightly spring over the wave,
That if Ober's lips were not mute, he
Would say that this vision of beauty
Exulted in doing her duty.

Dan Foster the business plied,
And always brought home to his bride
A boatful of fish on each tide.

Dan Foster's twin brother, he cried
Fresh haddock and cod far and wide;
The neighborhood all were supplied,
And the country on every side.

And now is the story all told,
For the dory which once was so bold
Grew timorous as she grew old.

She lay in a faint on the shore,
Did not go to sea as before,
And grew dry and leaked more and more.

And forgetting the scenes she had been to,
When Dan Foster had died, as all men do,
The dory was sold at a vendue.

The people who sold her, with powers
From Dan Foster's will, made her ours;
And now, every autumn of showers,
This oldest of dories embowers
With semi-tropical flowers.

The colors are scarlet and gory,
But peaceful, for all that, the story,
Of this autumn decline of the dory,
Which floats all its banners of glory.