Timber of chestnut, and elm, and oak, And scattered here and there, with these, The knarred and crooked cedar knees; Brought from regions far away, From Pascagoula's sunny bay, And the banks of the roaring Roanoke! Ah! what a wondrous thing it is To note how many wheels of toil
One thought, one word, can set in motion! There's not a ship that sails the ocean, But every climate, every soil, Must bring its tribute, great or small, And help to build the wooden wall!
The sun was rising o'er the sea, And long the level shadows lay, As if they, too, the beams would be Of some great, airy argosy, Framed and launched in a single day. That silent architect, the sun, Had hewn and laid them every one, Ere the work of man was yet begun. Beside the master, when he spoke, A youth, against an anchor leaning, Listened, to catch his slightest meaning. Only the long waves, as they broke In ripples on the pebbly beach, Interrupted the old man's speech.
Beautiful they were, in sooth, The old man and the fiery youth! The old man, in whose busy brain Many a ship that sailed the main Was modelled o'er and o'er again;- The fiery youth, who was to be The heir of his dexterity,
The heir of his house, and his daughter's hand, When he had built and launched from land What the elder head had planned.
"Thus," said he, "will we build this ship! Lay square the blocks upon the slip, And follow well this plan of mine. Choose the timbers with greatest care; Of all that is unsound beware; For only what is sound and strong To this vessel shall belong. Cedar of Maine and Georgia pine Here together shall combine.
A goodly frame, and a goodly fame, And the UNION be her name! For the day that gives her to the sea Shall give my daughter unto thee!"
The jaded steers, panting beneath the goad. ,4
It is the heart, and not the brain
That to the highest doth attain,
And he who followeth Love's behest Far excelleth all the rest!
Thus with the rising of the sun
Was the noble task begun,
And soon throughout the ship-yard's bounds Were heard the intermingled sounds
Of axes and of mallets, plied
With vigorous arms on every side; Plied so deftly and so well,
That, ere the shadows of evening fell, The keel of oak for a noble ship, Scarfed and bolted, straight and strong, Was lying ready, and stretched along The blocks, well placed upon the slip. Happy, thrice happy, every one Who sees his labor well begun. And not perplexed and multiplied, By idly waiting for time and tide!
And when the hot, long day was o'er, The young man at the master's door Sat with the maiden, calm and still. And within the porch, a little more Removed beyond the evening chill, The father sat, and told them tales Of wrecks in the great September gales, Of pirates coasting the Spanish Main, And ships that never came back again, The chance and change of a sailor's life, Want and plenty, rest and strife, His roving fancy, like the wind,
That nothing can stay and nothing can bind,
And the magic charm of foreign lands, With shadows of palms, and shining sands, Where the tumbling surf,
O'er the coral reefs of Madagascar, Washes the feet of the swarthy Lascar,
As he lies alone and asleep on the turf. And the trembling maiden held her breath At the tales of that awful, pitiless sea, With all its terror and mystery,
The dim, dark sea, so like unto death, That divides and yet unites mankind! And whenever the old man paused, a gleam From the bowl of his pipe would awhile illume The silent group in the twilight gloom, And thoughtful faces, as in a dream; And for a moment one might mark What had been hidden by the dark, That the head of the maiden lay at rest, Tenderly, on the young man's breast!
Day by day the vessel grew, With timbers fastened strong and true, Stemson and keelson and sternson-knee, Till, framed with perfect symmetry, A skeleton ship rose up to view! And around the bows and along the side The heavy hammers and mallets plied, Till after many a week, at length, Wonderful for form and strength, Sublime in its enormous bulk,
Loomed aloft the shadowy hulk!
And around it columns of smoke, upwreathing, Rose from the boiling, bubbling, seething Caldron, that glowed,
With the black tar, heated for the sheathing. And amid the clamors
Of clattering hammers,
He who listened heard now and then
The song of the master and his men :
"Build me straight, O worthy Master, Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel, That shall laugh at all disaster,
And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!"
With oaken brace and copper band, Lay the rudder on the sand,
That, like a thought, should have control Over the movement of the whole;
And near it the anchor, whose giant hand Would reach down and grapple wita the land, And immovable and fast
Hold the great ship against the bellowing blast! And at the bows an image stood, By a cunning artist carved in wood, With robes of white, that far behind Seemed to be fluttering in the wind. It was not shaped in a classic mould, Not like a Nymph or Goddess of old, Or Naiad rising from the water,
But modelled from the master's daughter! On many a dreary and misty night,
"T will be seen by the rays of the signal light, Speeding along through the rain and the dark, Like a ghost in its snow-white sark, The pilot of some phantom bark, Guiding the vessel, in its flight,
By a path none other knows aright!
Behold, at last,
Each tall and tapering mast Is swung into its place;
Shrouds and stays
Holding it firm and fast!
In the deer-haunted forests of Maine,
When upon mountain and plain
They fell,-those lordly pines!
Those grand, majestic pínes ! 'Mid shouts and cheers
The jaded steers,
Panting beneath the goad,
Dragged down the weary, winding road Those captive kings so straight and tall, To be shorn of their streaming hair,
And, naked and bare,
To feel the stress and the strain
Of the wind and the reeling main, Whose roar
Would remind them forevermore
Down his own the tears begin to run. The worthy pastor-
The shepherd of that wandering flock, That has the ocean for its wold, That has the vessel for its fold, Leaping ever from rock to rock- Spake, with accents mild and clear, Words of warning, words of cheer, But tedious to the bridegroom's ear. He knew the chart
Of the sailor's heart,
All its pleasures and its griefs, All its shallows and rocky reefs, All those secret currents, that flow With such resistless undertow,
And lift and drift, with terrible force, The will from its moorings and its course. Therefore he spake, and thus said he :- "Like unto ships far off at sea, Outward or homeward bound, are we. Before, behind, and all around, Floats and swings the horizon's bound,
Of their native forests they should not see Seems at its distant rim to rise
Stretched out from his native land,
And climb the crystal wall of the skies, And then again to turn and sink,
As if we could slide from its outer brink. Ah! it is not the sea,
It is not the sea that sinks and shelves, But ourselves
That rock and rise
With endless and uneasy motion,
Now touching the very skies,
Now sinking into the depths of ocean. Ah! if our souls but poise and swing Like the compass in its brazen ring, Ever level and ever true
Filling his heart with memories sweet and To the toil and the task we have to do,
All is finished! and at length
Has come the bridal day
Of beauty and of strength.
To-day the vessel shall be launched!
With fleecy clouds the sky is blanched, And o'er the bay,
Slowly, in all his splendors dight,
We shall sail securely, and safely reach The Fortunate Isles, on whose shining beach The sights we see, and the sounds we hear, Will be those of joy and not of fear!"
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. And see! she stirs !
She starts,--she moves,-she seems to feel The thrill of life along her keel,
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 There rose a shout, prolonged and loud, That to the ocean seemed to say, "Take her, O bridegroom, old and gray, Take her to thy protecting arms, With all her youth and all her charms!"
How beautiful she is! How fair She lies within those arms, that press Her form with many a soft caress Of tenderness and watchful care! Sil forth into the sea, O ship!
Through wind and wave, right onward steer! The moistened eye, the trembling lip, Are not the signs of doubt or fear.
Sail forth into the sea of life, O gentle, loving, trusting wife, And safe from all adversity Upon the bosom of that sea Thy comings and thy goings be! For gentleness and love and trust Prevail o'er angry wave and gust;
And in the wreck of noble lives Something immortal still survives!
Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O UNION, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate! We know what Master laid thy keel, What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge and what a heat Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 'T is of the wave and not the rock; 'Tis 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!
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.
THE SECRET OF THE SEA.-SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT.
Into the ocean faint and far
Falls the trail of its golden splendor, 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, 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!
AH! what pleasant visions haunt me As I gaze upon the sea!
All the old romantic legends,
All my dreams, come back to me.
Sails of silk and ropes of sandal, 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, Where the sand as silver shines, With a soft, monotonous cadence, Flow its unrnymed 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, Learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mystery!"
In each sail that skims the horizon, In each landward-blowing breeze,
I behold that stately galley,
Hear those mournful melodies;
Till my soul is full of longing For the secret of the sea, And the heart of the great ocean Sends a thrilling pulse through me.
THE twilight is sad and cloudy, The wind blows wild and free, And like the wings of sea-birds
Flash the white caps of the sea.
Southward through day and dark, They drift in close embrace, With mist and rain, o'er the open main; Yet there seems no change of place.
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