"Three weeks we westward bore, Stands looking seaward. "There lived we many years; Time dried the maiden's tears; She had forgot her fears, She was a mother; Death closed her mild blue eyes, Ne'er shall the sun arise On such another! "Still grew my bosom then, Still as a stagnant fen! Hateful to me were men, The sunlight hateful! In the vast forest here, Oh, death was grateful! "Thus, seamed with many scars, My soul ascended ! There from the flowing bowl Deep drinks the warrior's soul, Skoal! to the Northland! Skoal!"2 -Thus the tale ended. It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughtèr To bear him company. Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax, Her cheeks like the dawn of day, The skipper he stood beside the helm, His pipe was in his mouth, And he watched how the veering flaw did blow The smoke now west, now south. H Then up and spake an old sailòr, "I pray thee, put into yonder port, "Last night, the moon had a golden ring, Colder and louder blew the wind, And the billows frothed like yeast. Down came the storm, and smote amain She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed, "Come hither! come hither! my little daughter, And do not tremble so; For I can weather the roughest gale He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat He cut a rope from a broken spar, And bound her to the mast. "O 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. "O father! I hear the sound of guns; Oh, say, what may it be?" "Some ship in distress, that cannot live In such an angry sea! " "O father! I see a gleaming light; But the father answered never a word, Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark, The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave And fast through the midnight dark and drear, And ever the fitful gusts between The breakers were right beneath her bows, And a whooping billow swept the crew She struck where the white and fleecy waves But the cruel rocks, they gored her side Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, H 2 31923B At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach To see the form of a maiden fair Lashed close to a drifting mast. The salt sea was frozen on her breast, And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed, Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, Christ save us all from a death like this, |