Do you remember riding home before a dying summer breeze?Your topsoles gleaming golden, setting sun among the treesAnd the osprey wheeling slowly through the shadows by the shoreWhere the towering cliffs of granite plunged and fathoms deeper moorAnd the eddies swirl and flow down belowYou were solid built of Douglas fir and oak and yellow pineTwo hundred feet sailed by a crew that numbered only nineLoading lumber through your timber ports and dyewood from the southRunning home from Norfolk bearing coal to heat the northAnd whatever they could stow down belowBut the winter is upon you now and time is passing slowAnd the tides ebb and flow down belowYou served a well for fifteen years, your canvas all unfurledWhen New England's sailing ships were found in ports around the worldBut Mars gave way to smokestacks, clouds of white to black and greyThere was nothing left for you to do but waste your time awayAnd the rock was spreading slow down belowAnd the winter is upon you now and time is passing slowAnd the tides ebb and flow down belowFrom Wiscasset to the China lakes the narrow gauge did runAnd to push it northward to Quebec was old Frank Winter's planAnd the schooners were to bring his cargos in to meet the trainSo when he found you idle by the dock he brought you down to MaineWhere the tides ebb and flow down belowYou know he tried the best he could but he just couldn't make it paySo he ran you off the ground and turned around and walked awayYou'd been waiting here for fifty years but no one set you freeNow you're broken down and dying lying open to the seaAnd the tides ebb and flow down belowAnd the winter is upon you now and time is passing slowAnd the tides ebb and flow down belowNow the people come and stare at you with wonder in their eyesThe times have changed since men knew how to work a ship your sizeAnd the seas you sail are running black in time we'll know our lossIt's too late now for you but is it too late now for us?Can you teach us what you know before you go?For the winter is upon you now and time is passing slowAnd the tides ebb and flow down belowFor the winter is upon you now and time is passing slowAnd the tides ebb and flow down below*
