When I was just a little boy,
 Before I went to school,
 I had a fleet of forty sail
 I called the Ships of Yule;
 Of every rig, from rakish brig
 And gallant barkentine,
 To little Fundy fishing boats
 With gunwales painted green.
 They used to go on trading trips
 Around the world for me,
 For though I had to stay on shore
 My heart was on the sea.

 They stopped at every port to call
 From Babylon to Rome,
 To load with all the lovely things
 We never had at home;

 With elephants and ivory
 Bought from the King of Tyre,
 And shells and silks and sandal-wood
 That sailor men admire;

 With figs and dates from Samarcand,
 And squatty ginger-jars,
 And scented silver amulets
 From Indian bazaars;

 With sugar-cane from Port of Spain,
 And monkeys from Ceylon,
 And paper lanterns from Pekin
 With painted dragons on;

 With cocoanuts from Zanzibar,
 And pines from Singapore;
 And when they had unloaded these
 They could go back for more.

 And even after I was big
 And had to go to school,
 My mind was often far away
 Aboard the Ships of Yule.