Poncé De Léon

By a black wharf I stood lately,
   When the night was at its noon;
Keen, malicious stars were shining,
   And a wicked, white-faced moon.

And I saw a stately vessel,
   Built in fashion quaint and old;
From her masthead, in the moonlight,
   Hung a flag of faded gold.

Black with age her masts and spars were,
   Black with age her ropes and rails;
Like a ghost through cere-cloths gazing
   Shone the white moon through her sails.

Not a movement stirred the stillness,
   Not a sound the silence broke,
Save alone the livid water
   Lapping round her sides of oak.

Then to her unseen commander
   Spake I, as to one I knew—
“Don Juan Poncé de Léon,
   I have waited long for you.

“Take me with you, I implore you!
   Take me with you on your quest
For the Fount of Youth Eternal,
   For the Islands of the Blest.”

Then above the bulwarks ancient
   I beheld a head arise;
And the moon with ghastly glimmer
   Lit its sad and hollow eyes.

“Grieved am I, señor, and sorry,”
   Very courteously it said,
“That I may not take you with me—
   But I only take the Dead.

“These alone may dare the voyage,
   These alone sail on the quest
For the Fount of Youth Eternal,
   For the Islands of the Blest.”