He bowed his head, and bent his knee
Upon the monarch's silken stool;
His pleading voice arose: "O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!

5 "No pity, Lord, could change the heart

10

15

20

From red with wrong to white as wool:
The rod must heal the sin; but, Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!

""T is not by guilt the onward sweep

Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay; 'T is by our follies that so long

We hold the earth from heaven away.

"These clumsy feet, still in the mire,

Go crushing blossoms without end;
These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust
Among the heart-strings of a friend.

"The ill-timed truth we might have kept Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung! The word we had not sense to say

Who knows how grandly it had rung!

"Our faults no tenderness should ask,

The chastening stripes must cleanse them all; But for our blunders oh, in shame

Before the eyes of heaven we fall.

"Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;

Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool That did his will; but Thou, O Lord,

The room was hushed; in silence rose
The King, and sought his gardens cool,
And walked apart, and murmured low,
"Be merciful to me, a fool!"

5

10

Before him only shoreless seas.

The good mate said: "Now must we pray,
For lo! the very stars are gone.

15

Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?" "Why say, 'Sail on! sail on! and on!'"'

"My men grow mutinous day by day;

My men grow ghastly pale and weak." The stout mate thought of home; a spray Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. "What shall I say, brave Admiral, say,

If we sight naught but seas at dawn?" "Why, you shall say, at break of day: 'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'

20

25

5

They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow,
Until at last the blanched mate said:
"Why not even God would know

Should I and all my men fall dead.
These very winds forget their way,

For God from these dread seas is gone.
Now speak, brave Admiral, speak, and say "
He said: "Sail on! sail on! and on!"

They sailed.

They sailed. Then spake the mate: "This mad sea shows his teeth tonight. He curls his lip, he lies in wait,

With lifted teeth as if to bite!

Brave Admiral, say but one word;
What shall we do when hope is gone?"
The word leapt like a leaping sword:
"Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"

Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck,
And peered through darkness. Ah, that night
Of all dark nights! And then a speck

A light! a light! a light! a light!

It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!

It grew to be Time's burst of dawn;
He gained a world; he gave that world
Its grandest message: "On! sail on!"

WESTWARD HO!

What strength! what strife! what rude unrest!
What shocks! what half-shaped armies met!
A mighty nation moving west,