When on the white sea-strand, With twenty horsemen. "Then launched they to the blast, Bent like a reed each mast, Yet we were gaining fast, When the wind failed us; And with a sudden flaw "And as to catch the gale Round veered the flapping sail, Mid-ships with iron keel Struck we her ribs of steel; “As with his wings aslant, So toward the open main, Bore I the maiden. "Three weeks we westward bore, There for my lady's bower Stands looking sea-ward. "There lived we many years; Death closed her mild blue eyes, "Still grew my bosom then, The sun-light hateful! In the vast forest here, O, death was grateful! "Thus, seamed with many scars My soul ascended! There from the flowing bowl Deep drinks the warrior's soul, Skoal! to the Northland! skoal!"* * In Scandanavia this is the customary salutation when Irink. ing a health. I have slightly changed the orthography of the word, in order to preserve the correct pronunciation. THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS. Ir was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea; And the skipper had taken his little daughter, Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax, The skipper he stood beside the helm, And he watched how the veering flaw did blow Then up and spake an old Sailor, "I pray thee, put into yonder port, Last night, the moon had a golden ring, Colder and louder blew the wind, The snow fell hissing in the brine, And the billows frothed like yeast. Down came the storm, and smote amain, She shuddered and paused, like a frighted stee 'Come hither! come hither! my little daughter, And do not tremble so; For I can weather the roughest gale, He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat He cut a rope from a broken spar, "O father! I hear the church-bells ring, say, what may it be?" 0 ""T is a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast! And he steered for the open sea. "O father! I hear the sound of guns, what may it be? 0 say? "Some ship in distress, that cannot live In such an angry sea!" "O father! I see a gleaming light, But the father answered never a word, Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark, The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow On his fixed and glassy eyes. Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed That saved she might be; And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave, On the Lake of Galilee. And fast through the midnight dark and drear, Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept And ever the fitful gusts between The breakers were right beneath her bows, And a whooping billow swept the crew She struck where the white and fleecy waves Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach, The salt-sea was frozen on her breast, And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed, Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, Christ save us all from a death like this, |