Spirit-Ship

O intimate one who blows

Chill greeting to my spine

And lifts around my head

Locks of serpentine,

Laces my shaggy beard

With whirling tide of sleet

Or runs the valleys' breadths

On stealthy cat-like feet,

My hands are frozen blocks

O tearer of the sea

The ropes like irons burn

O wind of misery.

Wind of widows' tears

Children watch and wait

At windows pocked with rime,

To inmost fears abate.

O furnace of the east

Whose devil-dance and dust

With thy companion burn

Earth's body to a crust

Or suck from thirsty land

The last sustaining drop

Of life and in the sands

Bury the human crop,

Thy tyranny resist

Wind of gale and foam,

Carry this spirit-ship

Swiftly, safely home.