AN IDLE DITTY, a poem

'TIS I have been waiting to know, dear,
     The day that ye'r ship would come in,
For if I'm to love ye at all, dear,
     I'm thinking it's time to begin.

The mavis is singing hard by, dear,
     The hedges are white wi' the may,
And there's never a cloud i' the sky, dear,
     To hinder a ship on its way.

Ye've told me o' castles a many,
     And though they're but castles in Spain,
I surely were better in any
     Wi' you, than alone wi' my pain!

The mavis that's close to her mate, dear,
     For no castle would part wi' her nest,
And the ship that brings you, though it's late, dear,
     Brings me what is worth all the rest!

"An Idle Ditty" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in The Unconquered Air (1912) and Poems (1916) Volume II.