THE EVENING STAR. JUST above yon sandy bar, As the day grows fainter and dimmer, Lonely and lovely, a single star Lights the air with a dusky glimmer. Into the ocean faint and far Falls the trail of its golden splendour, Chrysaor, rising out of the sea, Showed thus glorious and thus emulous, Leaving the arms of Callirrhœ, For ever tender, soft, and tremulous. Thus o'er the ocean faint and far Trailed the gleam of his falchion brightly; Is it a God, or is it a star, That, entranced, I gaze on nightly! THE SECRET OF THE SEA. АH! what pleasant visions haunt me, All the old romantic legends, All my dreams, come back to me. Sails of silk and ropes of sendal, And the answer from the shore! Most of all, the Spanish ballad Like the long waves on a sea-beach, Telling how the Count Arnaldos, How he heard the ancient helmsman Till his soul was full of longing, And he cried, with impulse strong,— "Helmsman! for the love of heaven, Teach me, too, that wondrous song!" "Wouldst thou,”– —so the helmsman answered, "Learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mystery!" In each sail that skims the horizon, I behold that stately galley, Hear those mournful melodies; Till my soul is full of longing And the heart of the great ocean Sends a thrilling pulse through me. TWILIGHT. THE twilight is sad and cloudy, But in the fisherman's cottage Close, close it is pressed to the window, As if those childish eyes Were looking into the darkness, To see some form arise. And a woman's waving shadow Now rising to the ceiling, Now bowing and bending low. What tale do the roaring ocean, And the night-wind, bleak and wild, As they beat at the crazy casement, Tell to that little child? And why do the roaring ocean, And the night-wind, wild and bleak, As they beat at the heart of the mother, Drive the colour from her cheek? SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT.43 SOUTHWARD with fleet of ice His lordly ships of ice Glistened in the sun; On each side, like pennons wide, His sails of white sea-mist Dripped with silver rain; But where he passed there were cast Eastward from Campobello Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed; Three days or more seaward he bore, Then, alas! the land-wind failed. Alas! the land-wind failed, And ice-cold grew the night; He sat upon the deck, The Book was in his hand; "Do not fear! Heaven is as near," He said, "by water as by land!” In the first watch of the night, Out of the sea, mysteriously, The fleet of Death rose all around. The moon and the evening star Seemed to rake the passing clouds. They grappled with their prize, Southward, through day and dark, With mist and rain, to the Spanish Main; Southward, for ever southward, They drift through dark and day; THE LIGHTHOUSE. THE rocky ledge runs far into the sea, Even at this distance I can see the tides, Upheaving, break unheard along its base, A speechless wrath, that rises and subsides In the white lip and tremour of the face. And as the evening darkens, lo! how bright, Through the deep purple of the twilight air, Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light, With strange, unearthly splendour in its glare! |