Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

"You know I once was all your own
But now a shark must share!
But let that pass for now to you

I'm neither here nor there.

"Alas! death has a strange divorce

Effected in the sea,

It has divided me from you,

And even me from me!

"Don't fear my ghost will walk o'nights
To haunt, as people say!

My ghost can't walk, for, oh! my legs
Are many leagues away!

"Lord! think when I am swimming round,
And looking where the boat is,
A shark just snaps away a half,
Without a quarter's notice.'

6

"One half is here, the other half
Is near Columbia placed;
Oh! Sally, I have got the whole
Atlantic for my waist.

"But now, adieu a long adieu !

I've solved death's awful riddle,

And would say more, but I am doomed
To break off in the middle ! "

THE FALL.

"Down, down, down, ten thousand fathoms deep." COUNT FATHOM.

WHO does not know that dreadful gulf, where Niagara falls,

Where eagle unto eagle screams, to vulture vulture calls;

Where down beneath, Despair and Death in liquid darkness grope,

And upward, on the foam there shines a rainbow without Hope;

While, hung with clouds of Fear and Doubt, the unreturning wave

Suddenly gives an awful plunge, like life into the

grave;

And many a hapless mortal there hath dived to bale or bliss ;

One-only one that abyss !

hath ever lived to rise from

Oh, Heaven! it turns me now to ice with chill of

fear extreme,

To think of my frail bark adrift on that tumultuous stream!

In vain with desperate sinews, strung by love of life and light,

I urged that coffin, my canoe, against the current's

might:

On — on

still on direct for doom, the river rushed in force,

And fearfully the stream of Time raced with it in

its course.

My eyes I closed — I dared not look the way towards the goal ;

But still I viewed the horrid close, and dreamt it in my soul.

Plainly, as through transparent lids, I saw the fleeting shore,

And lofty trees, like winged things, flit by for

evermore;

Plainly but with no prophet sense I heard the sullen sound,

The torrent's voice

and felt the mist, like death

sweat gathering round.

O agony! O life! My home! and those that

made it sweet:

Ere I could pray, the torrent lay beneath my very feet.

With frightful whirl, more swift than thought, I passed the dizzy edge,

Bound after bound, with hideous bruise, I dashed from ledge to ledge,

From crag to crag-in speechless pain - from midnight deep to deep;

I did not die- but anguish stunned my senses

into sleep.

How long entranced, or whither dived, no clue I have to find:

At last the gradual light of life came dawning o'er my mind ;

And through my brain there thrilled a cry a cry as shrill as birds'

Of vulture or of eagle kind, but this was set to words:

"It's Edgar Huntley in his cap and nightgown, I. declares !

[ocr errors]

He's been a walking in his sleep, and pitched all down the stairs !'

[ocr errors]

STEAM SEA SONGS.

I STEAMED from the Downs in the Nancy,
My jib how she smoked through the breeze
She's a vessel as tight to my fancy

As ever boiled through the salt seas.

[blocks in formation]

When up the flue the sailor goes

And ventures on the pot,
The landsman, he no better knows,

But thinks hard is his lot.

Bold Jack with smiles each danger meets,
Weighs anchor, lights the log;

[blocks in formation]

Trims up the fire, picks out the slates,
And drinks his can of grog

[blocks in formation]

Go patter to lubbers and swabs do you see, 'Bout danger, and fear, and the like;

*

But a Boulton and Watt and good Wall's-end give me ;

And it ain't to a little I'll strike.

Though the tempest our chimney smack smooth

shall down smite,

And shiver each bundle of wood;

Clear the wreck, stir the fire, and stow every thing tight,

And boiling a gallop we'll scud.

[blocks in formation]

Hark, the boatswain hoarsely bawling,
By shovel, tongs, and poker, stand;
Down the scuttle quick be hauling,
Down your bellows, hand, boys, hand.
Now it freshens-blow like blazes ;
Now unto the coal-hole go;
Stir, boys, stir, don't mind black faces,
Up your ashes nimbly throw.

Ply your bellows, raise the wind, boys,
See the valve is clear of course;
Let the paddles spin, don't mind, boys,

Though the weather should be worse.
Fore and aft a proper draft get,

« ForrigeFortsett »