They needed him not, they heard him not, He had no strength to move"Must I perish," he cried despairingly, "In sight of land and love?"
"Pity me, little children dear!"
His voice rose piercing shrill-
But they played on right merrily,
And he lay moaning still.
The evening bell began to toll
In the village beyond the trees,
It reached the mariner's fainting soul
On the wings of the balmy breeze.
But, ere a star had lit the sky,
That lovely isle grew dim;
It faded away from his aching eye,
And left no hope for him.
Yet still tolled on that soft, sad bell,
While unknown voices sung;
'Twas the dying mariner's funeral knell, O'er his watery grave that rung.
So, like the fair and false mirage,
Do earthly joys decay;
And, when the hour of death draws nigh, They have vanished far away.
But, through the storm, amid the gloom,
I see the Rock appear;
If we anchor there our holy hopes,
We shall have no cause to fear.
When, like the shipwrecked mariner,
We have lost all earthly stay,
The child of God hath a land in view,
That shall never pass away.
AUTHOR OF "THE LETTER FROM HOME."
PORTENTS OF A STORM.
THE day is lowering-stilly black
Sleeps the grim wave, while heaven's rack,
Dispersed and wild, 'twixt earth and sky,
Hangs like a shattered canopy.
There's not a cloud in that blue plain
But tells of storm to come or past;
Here, flying loosely as the mane
Of a young war-horse in the blast ;—
There, rolled in masses dark and swelling,
As proud to be the thunder's dwelling!
While some, already burst and riven,
Seem melting down the verge of heaven;
As though the infant-storm had rent
The mighty womb that gave him birth,
And, having swept the firmament,
Was now in fierce career for earth.
On earth 'twas yet all calm around,
A pulseless silence dread, profound,
More awful than the tempest's sound.
The diver steered for ORMUS' bowers,
And moored his skiff till calmer hours;
The sea-birds, with portentous screech,
Flew fast to land;-upon the beach
The pilot oft had paused, with glance
Turned upward to that wild expanse ;—
And all was boding, drear, and dark,
As her own soul, when HINDA's bark
Went slowly from the Persian shore.
No music timed her parting oar,
Nor friends upon the lessening strand
Lingered, to wave the unseen hand,
Or speak the farewell, heard no more;
But lone, unheeded, from the bay
The vessel takes its mournful way,
Like some ill-destined bark that steers
In silence through the Gate of Tears.*
THE Pilot, who incessant watched the winds, Ordered all hands on deck. To the shrill call The mariners, aroused from soundest sleep, A prompt obedience paid; and as the breeze
More freshly blew, they furled the extended sails. "Comrades, be quick!" the pilot cried aloud, "For yon black cloud portends a rising gale."
Nor was there time to reef and furl the sails,
Ere, with unwonted violence, the storm
Began to rage. Vociferous exclaimed
"Strike the mainsail! instant strike!"
This to achieve permitted not the winds
Indignant; but, concentrating their force,
Tore it in shreds with such a mighty roar,
As if the very Universe itself
Had split; and, with a sudden panic seized,
The crew with shrieks of terror smote the skies;
For, when the sail was rent, the rolling ship
Was inundated by the rushing waves.
"Lighten the ship!" the pilot hoarsely cried:
"Let every thing unsparing overboard
Be thrown; let no disunion prevail;
Fly to the pumps, and work incessantly;
We founder else." With animated zeal
The labouring pump unceasingly they ply,
But oft are prostrate cast upon the deck,
While the ship reels, tossed by the furious waves.
Three powerful, intrepid mariners
To govern the unmanageable helm
Suffice not, but to tackle have recourse
For safety, when their strength can nought avail.
Such was the force resistless of the storm,
That with more violence it had not raged,
Were its terrific energies unloosed
The massive Babylonian Tower to raze.
Yet on the mountainous and swelling waves
A vessel of colossal magnitude,
A tiny skiff appearing, floating, dares
The appalling perils of the furious Main!
"I am the bright and the morning star."-(REV. xxii. 16.)
Hail! lonely star, so soon to lave
Thy tresses in the western wave!
When ends the sun's resplendent flight,
Thou spread'st a smile o'er gloomy night,
And lead'st the sailor on his way,
Else plunged in doubt, and left to stray.
When Adam fell, by sin beguiled,
And Justice frowned where Love had smiled;
Thus clouds of wrath, o'er Eden spread,
Filled earth with gloom and man with dread,
Till JESUS dawned with healing ray,
And turned the darkness into day.*
* At a very early period, the planet Venus was discovered to be both the evening and the morning star-the Phosphorus and Hesperus of the Poets.
"Friend to mankind, she glitters from afar,
Now the bright evening, now the morning star."
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