QUINQUIREME of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.
Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amythysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.
The author of this poem, a man who would later become the court poet (poet laureate) in Britain, ran away to sea. We imagine him lying in a bunk, dreaming of these three vessels and setting the words to the musical rhythm of the waves.
He does take considerable poetic license. In ancient times, no quinquereme could have got from Ophir (which we conjecture was on the Ethiopian shores) to Palestine without going around Africa.