O, broad-armed Fisher of the deep, whose sports can equal thine ? 0, lodger in the sea-king's halls, couldst thou but understand Whose be the white bones by thy side, or who that dripping band, Slow swaying in the heaving wave, that round about thee bend, With sounds like breakers in a dream, blessing their ancient friendOh, couldst thou know what heroes glide with larger steps round thee, Thine iron side would swell with pride, thou dst leap within the sea ! Give honor to their memories who left the pleasant strand, THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. H. W. LONGFELLOW. It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea ; To bear him company. Blue were her eyes, as the lairy-flax, Her cheeks like the dawn of day, That ope in the month of May. The skipper he stood beside the helm, His pipe was in his mouth, THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. 165 And watched how the veering flaw did blow The smoke now west, now south. Then up and spake an old sailor, Had sailed the Spanish Main, "I pray thee, put into yonder port, For I fear a hurricane.. “Last night the moon had a golden ring, And to-night no moon we see ! And a scornful laugh laughed he. Colder and louder blew the wind, A gale from the northeast; And the billows frothed like yeast. Down came the storm, and smote amain The vessel in its strength; Then leaped her cable's length. " Come hither! come hither! my little daughter, And do not tremble so; That ever wind did blow." He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat, Against the stinging blast; And bound her to the mast. “0, father! I hear the church-bells ring, Oh, say, what may it be?"! “ 'Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast !" And he steered for the open sea. “0, father! I hear the sound of guns, Ob, say, what may it be ?" “Some ship in distress, that cannot live In such an angry sea !” “O, father! I see a gleaming light, Oh, say, what may it be?” A frozen corpse was he. Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark, With his face turned to the skies, The lantern gleamed through the glancing snow On his fixed and glassy eyes. Then the maiden clasped her hands, and prayed That saved she might be ; And she thought of Christ, who stilled the waves On the Lake of Galilee. And fast through the midnight dark and drear, Through the whistling sleet and snow, Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept Towards the reef of Norman's Woe. And ever the fitful gusts between A sound came from the land; On the rocks and the hard sea-sand. The breakers were right beneath her bows, She drifted a dreary wreck, Like icicles, from her deck. She struck where the white and fleecy waves Looked soft as carded wool, Like the horns of an angry bull. Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, With the masts, went by the board ; THE MAN OF ROSS. 167 Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank, Ho! ho! the breakers roared. At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach, A fisherman stood aghast, Lashed close to a drifting mast. The salt sea was frozen on her breast, The salt tears in her eyes ; On the billows fall and rise. Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, In the midnight and the snow ! On the reef of Norman's Woe! THE MAN OF ROSS. ALEXANDER POPE. -All our praises why should lords engross ? Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans blessed, Thrice happy man! enabled to pursue Of debts and taxes, wife and children clear, And what! no monument, inscription, stone ? Who builds a church to God, and not to fame, NO WORK THE HARDEST WORK. O.P.ORNE. Ho! ye who at the anvil toil, And strike the sounding blow, The sparks fly to and fro, And fire's intenser glow- And sweat the long day through, To have no work to do. |