"Like unto ships far off at sea, Floats and swings the horizon's bound, And climb the crystal wall of the skies, As if we could slide from its outer brink, It is not the sea that sinks and shelves, That rock and rise With endless and uneasy motion, Now sinking into the depths of ocean. To the toil and the task we have to do, Then the Master, With a gesture of command, Waved his hand; And at the word, Loud and sudden there was heard, All around them and below, The sound of hammers, blow on blow, Knocking away the shores and spurs. She starts, she moves, — she seems to feel And, spurning with her foot the ground, With one exulting, joyous bound, She leaps into the ocean's arms! And lo! from the assembled crowd "Take her, O bridegroom, old and gray, With all her youth and all her charms!" How beautiful she is! How fair Through wind and wave, right onward steer! Are not the signs of doubt or fear. Sail forth into the sea of life, Upon the bosom of that sea Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State ! With all the hopes of future years, 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! VOL. V. N J' CHRYSAOR. UST 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 splendor, And the gleam of that single star Chrysaor rising out of the sea, Showed thus glorious and thus emulous, Leaving the arms of Callirrhoe, Forever tender, soft, and tremulous. Thus o'er the ocean faint and far Trailed the gleam of his falchion brightly; Is it a God, or is it a star That, entranced, I gaze on nightly! THE SECRET OF THE SEA A H! what pleasant visions haunt me All the old romantic legends, All my dreams, come back to me. Sails of silk and ropes of sendal, And the answer from the shore! Most of all, the Spanish ballad Of the noble Count Arnaldos Like the long waves on a sea-beach, With a soft, monotonous cadence, Telling how the Count Arnaldos, Steering onward to the land; |