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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 10, Issue 2 (May 1, 1935)

Trade Winds

Trade Winds.

The Trades are always loyal,
The Trades are always true.
Be ours the shaking royal
Or thrusting crank and screw,
To hear the warm winds singing
Across the white-capped sea
Is like a love-kiss bringing
Content to you and me.

In palm trees down at Santa
In the New Hebrides,
Off lonely Palaranta,
They're saying words like these,
“On! on! Be swift! Be ready!”
Yet when the night has come
The Trades, so true and steady
Will bring the tired ships home.

The stiff-bowed steamers meet them
With white spray flung afar.
The island schooners greet them,
Such lovers as they are,
So hot in headless onset,
So gentle when they blow
Into the red-rayed sunset
To fan its dying glow.

Their songs are never ended—
As though they understand,
From haunts by sun befriended
They come, hand over hand,
To cheer the gasping oilers
Beneath the hot decks bound,
To roar ‘neath laden boilers
And blow the turbines round.

The lovers hear the wireless,
The firemen in the waist,
Know naught so kind and tireless
So linked with little haste;
By bold Cape Grafton turning,
They'll rest in Mission Bay;
Where Venus light is burning
At dawn they'll be away.

They bid the white days waken,
Ere Dawn has shyly stirred.
In jibs and tops'ls shaken
They shout a joyful word.
Maybe in the Marquesas,
Maybe off Pago's peaks,
As Day, Night's spell releases
The eager Trade Wind speaks.

The Trades are always blowing
For God has made it so,
To help the sailors going
Wherever they must go.
And oh! the Trade Wind singing
To palm or white-capped sea
Is like a home song, bringing
A benison to me.

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