Fling broad the sail, dip deep the oar: To sea, to sea! our wide-winged bark O'er antelopes on Alpine height. The anchor heaves, the ship swings free, The sails swell full. To sea, to sea! THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES. [From Wood Notes, ii.] THE HE sea tosses and foams to find Its way up to the cloud and wind. RALPH WALDO EMERSON. A [From King Arthur, Book ix.] LONELY ship-lone in the measureless sea, Lone in the channel thro' the frozen steeps, Like some bold thought launch'd on infinity By early sage-comes glimmering up the deeps! The dull wave, dirge-like, moans beneath the oar; The dull air heaves with wings that glide before. Crash'd thro' the dreary air a thunder peal! In their slow courses meet two ice-rock isles Clanging; the wide seas far-resounding reel; The toppling ruin rolls in the defiles; The pent tides quicken with the headlong shock; Broad-billowing heave the long waves from the rock; Far down the booming vales precipitous The water runs in mäelstroms,—as a reed Behind it, thunderous swept the glacier masses, Shivering and splintering, hurtling each on each: Narrower and narrower press the frowning passes :Jamm'd in the farthest gorge the bark may reach, Where the grim Scylla locks the direful way, The fierce Charybdis flings her mangled prey. As if a living thing, in very part The vessel groans-and with a dismal chime Cracks to the cracking ice; asunder start The brazen ribs :--and, clogg'd and freezing, climb Thro' cleft and chink, as thro' their native caves, The gelid armies of the hardening waves. EDWARD, LORD LYTTON. E [From The Image on the Tide.] HE sense cannot count THE (As the waters glass The forest and mount And the clouds that pass) The shadows and gleams In that stilly deep, Like the tranquil dreams Of a hermit's sleep. LORD LYTTON. [From Travels of Theodore Elbert.] NCE more, thou darkly rolling main, ONCE I bid thy lonely strength adieu; And sorrowing leave thee once again, Thy many voices, which are one, The varying garbs that robe thy might, Thy dazzling hues at set of sun, Thy deeper loveliness by night; The shades that flit with every breeze What has the universe like these, Or what so strong, so fair as thou? JOHN STERLING. The Tide rises, the Tide falls. THE tide rises, the tide falls, The twilight darkens, the curlew calls; Darkness settles on roofs and walls, But the sea in the darkness calls and calls; And the tide rises, the tide falls. The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls The day returns, but never more And the tide rises, the tide falls. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. |