Page:The Domestic Affections, and Other Poems.pdf/161



At that still hour, the sailor wakes to keep, 'Midst the dead calm, the vigil of the deep! No gleaming shores his dim horizon bound, All heaven—and sea—and solitude—around! Then, from the lonely deck, the silent helm, From the wide grandeur of the shadowy realm; Still homeward borne, his fancy unconfin'd, Leaving the worlds of ocean far behind, Wings like a meteor-flash her swift career, To the lov'd scene, so distant, and so dear!

Lo! the rude whirlwind rushes from its cave, And danger frowns—the monarch of the wave! Lo! rocks and storms the striving bark repel, And death and shipwreck ride the foaming swell

Child of the ocean! is thy bier the surge, Thy grave the billow, and the wind thy dirge? Yes! thy long toils, thy weary conflicts o'er, No storm shall wake, no perils rouse thee more!