Poem for Saturday, Star-Spangled Sailabration, Shadowplay

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
By Eugene Field

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
   Sailed off in a wooden shoe,—
Sailed on a river of crystal light
   Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
   The old moon asked the three.
"We have come to fish for the herring-fish
   That live in this beautiful sea;
   Nets of silver and gold have we,"
            Said Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song,
   As they rocked in the wooden shoe;
And the wind that sped them all night long
   Ruffled the waves of dew;
The little stars were the herring-fish
   That lived in the beautiful sea.
"Now cast your nets wherever you wish,—
   Never afraid are we!"
   So cried the stars to the fishermen three,
            Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
   To the stars in the twinkling foam,—
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
   Bringing the fishermen home:
'Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed
   As if it could not be;
And some folk thought 'twas a dream they'd dreamed
   Of sailing that beautiful sea;
   But I shall name you the fishermen three:
            Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
   And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
   Is a wee one's trundle-bed;
So shut your eyes while Mother sings
   Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
   As you rock in the misty sea
   Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:—
            Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.

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Paul took Friday off and we spent most of the day in Baltimore at the Star-Spangled Sailabration, a multi-day festival commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812 with tall ships from all over the world, free concerts, and events ranging from costumed reenactors discussing how the war affected Maryland's various counties to the Blue Angels performing over the city (we saw one of the planes practicing over the highway in the afternoon). The bigger ships all had lines 45 minutes to an hour long, so since we've been on Cisne Branco and Cuauhtemoc before, we walked around the harbor with to see the various foreign ambassador ships, U.S. and Canadian military vessels, visiting schooners and Pride of Baltimore, NOAA ship and USS Constellation.


The sun shone over Cisne Branco, the Brazilian Navy's visiting tall ship.


Cisne Branco and Cuauhtemoc, behind it, docked by Harborplace, while the USS Constellation remained in its usual berth.


The Indonesian Navy's KRI Dewaruci was visiting with a large contingent of friendly officers and sailors.


Dragon paddleboats approached the ship where it was berthed opposite the Constellation museum.


Here I am posing as Bima, one of the heroes of the Mahabharata.


For some reason several of the visiting ships were flying pirate flags.


Harbor shuttles took visitors back and forth from Fells Point, where other ships were docked. You can see the Pride of Baltimore II in the upper right.


I'm not entirely sure who gave these girls their titles (I have no idea who the current Miss Maryland is) but I'm always happy to see women in tiaras!

We had lunch sitting in the grass by the World Trade Center, then we walked back around the harbor to the Maryland Science Center (of which we are members) so that we could see the tall ships from the upper floor windows and get our parking ticket stamped. We came home late in the afternoon so that Adam could walk the neighbor's dog and I could post a review of Deep Space Nine's "Shadowplay". Then we had dinner with my parents, caught some of the Nationals-Yankees game (which did not go well for the Nationals, nor did the Orioles beat the Braves, waah), and then watched a couple of episodes of Relic Hunter with Daniel, which it is quite delightful to revisit.