THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP. 45 How beautiful she is! How fair Her form with many a soft caress Of tenderness and watchful care! Through wind and wave, right onward steer! Are not the signs of doubt or fear. Sail forth into the sea of life, O gentle, loving, trusting wife, Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! With all the hopes of future years, Fear not each sudden sound and shock, "T is of the wave and not the rock; 'T is but the flapping of the sail, And not a rent made by the gale! In spite of rock and tempest's roar, In spite of false lights on the shore, Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee,-are all with thee! 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, And the gleam of that single star Is ever refulgent, soft, and tender. Chrysaor rising out of the sea, Showed thus glorious and thus emulous, THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP. Leaving the arms of Callirrhoc, For ever tender, soft, and tremulous. Thus o'er the ocean faint and far 47 Trailed the gleam of his falchion brightly; Is it a God, or is it a star That, entranced, I gaze on nightly! AH! What pleasant visions haunt me All the old romantic legends, All my dreams, come back to me. Sails of silk and ropes of sendal, Such as gleam in ancient lore; And the singing of the sailors, And the answer from the shore! Most of all, the Spanish ballad Haunts me oft, and tarries long, Of the noble Count Arnaldos And the sailor's mystic song. Like the long waves on a sea-beach, With a soft, monotonous cadence, Flow its unrhymed lyric lines ; Telling how the Count Arnaldos, With his hawk upon his hand, Saw a fair and stately galley, Steering onward to the land; How he heard the ancient helmsman Chant a song so wild and clear, That the sailing sea-bird slowly Poised upon the mast to hear, 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, 66 Learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mystery!" |