An initial reading of the poem immediately generates feelings of sadness and pity, especially for the lost child to whom Sandburg compares the boat. Interestingly, the poet does not speak to the feelings of the people who are presumably aboard the boat, but rather ascribes all emotion to the boat itself. He refers only to its whistle, which “Calls and cries unendingly,” and it is the boat itself that does the hunting for harbor and home.