Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

And, as their splendour flashed and failed,
We thought of wrecks upon the main,--
Of ships dismasted, that were hailed
And sent no answer back again.

The windows, rattling in their frames,—
The ocean, roaring up the beach,-
The gusty blast,—the bickering flames,—
All mingled vaguely in our speech ;

Until they made themselves a part
Of fancies floating through the brain,—
The long-lost ventures of the heart,
That send no answers back again.

O flames that glowed! O hearts that yearned!
They were indeed too much akin,
The drift-wood fire without that burned,

The thoughts that burned and glowed within.

Longfellow.

THE FIRST DEPARTURE.

How grand, oh sea, thou lonely sea,
Is all thy wandering water;
But yet thou bearest far from me
My boy of song and laughter.

The boy who filled his mother's home With life and joy and gladness, Thou bearest on thy mighty waste, And leav'st but tears and sadness.

How grand, old sea, thy lonely waves,
How far the shores it laveth;
Yet to those shores thou bear'st away
The boy my spirit craveth.

I miss him at our morning praise,
I miss him at our prayer,
I miss him at the Sunday church,—
My boy, you are not there.

Oh sea, thou sea, thou lonely sea,
That bear'st my child away,

His name will aye be mentioned here
Each passing hour of day.

Remembered in our constant prayer,
Which, God, we raise to Thee;
Oh still preserve Thy ransomed child,
That we with Thee may be.

Oh sea, oh sea, oh lonely sea,
Bring back upon thy water,

Before death's hand shall part from me
My boy of song and laughter.

But greater far than thou, oh sea,
Is He who lives in heaven,
And He will keep my child for me,
Through grace unfailing given.

Rev. E. Monro.

THE CONVICT SHIP.

Morn on the waters !--and purple and bright Bursts on the billows the flushing of light; O'er the glad waves, like a child of the sun, See, the tall vessel goes gallantly on.

Full to the breeze she unbosoms her sail, And her pennon streams onward, like hope, in the gale ;

The winds come around her with murmur and

song,

And the surges rejoice as they bear her along :
See she looks up to the golden-edged clouds,
And the sailor sings gaily aloft in the shrouds :
Onward she glides, amid ripple and spray,
Over the waters-away, and away!

Bright as the visions of youth, ere they part,
Passing away, like a dream of the heart!
Who,- as the beautiful pageant sweeps by,
Music around her, and sunshine on high,
Pauses to think, amid glitter and glow,
"Oh! there be hearts that are breaking below!"

Night on the waves! and the moon is on high, Hung like a gem, on the brow of the sky, Treading its depths in the power of her might,

And turning the clouds, as they pass her, to

light!

Look to the waters! asleep on their breast,

Seems not the ship like an island of rest?

Bright and alone on the shadowy main,
Like a heart-cherished home on some desolate

plain!

Who--as she smiles in the silvery light,
Spreading her wings on the bosom of night,
Alone on the deep, as the moon in the sky,
A phantom of beauty-could deem, with a sigh,
That so lovely a thing is the mansion of sin,
And that souls that are smitten, lie bursting
within ?

Who-as he watches her silently gliding-
Remembers that wave after wave is dividing
Bosoms that sorrow and guilt could not sever,
Hearts which are parted and broken for ever?
Or deems that he watches, afloat on the wave,
The death-bed of hope, or the young spirit's
grave!

'Tis thus with our life, while it passes along, Like a vessel at sea, amid sunshine and song! Gaily we glide in the gaze of the world, With streamers afloat, and with canvas unfurled, All gladness and glory to wondering eyes, Yet chartered by sorrow and freighted with sighs:

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »