Lo! in that house of misery A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom, And slow, as in a dream of bliss, As if a door in heaven should be The light shone and was spent. On England's annals, through the long That light its rays shall cast A Lady with a Lamp shall stand Nor even shall be wanting here Saint Filomena bore. THE DISCOVERER OF THE NORTH CAPE A LEAF FROM KING ALFRED'S OROSIUS. OTHERE, the old sea-captain, Who dwelt in Helgoland, To King Alfred, the Lover of Truth, His figure was tall and stately, His hair was yellow as hay, Hearty and hale was Othere, His cheek had the color of oak; As unto the King he spoke. And Alfred, King of the Saxons, And wrote down the wondrous tale "So far I live to the northward, To the east are wild mountain-chains, "So far I live to the northward, From the harbor of Skeringes-hale, If you only sailed by day, With a fair wind all the way, More than a month would you sail. "I own six hundred reindeer, With sheep and swine beside; I have tribute from the Finns, Whalebone and reindeer-skins, And ropes of walrus-hide. "I ploughed the land with horses, With their sagas of the seas; "Of Iceland and of Greenland, And the undiscovered deep; "To the northward stretched the desert, How far I fain would know ; So at last I sallied forth, And three days sailed due north, "To the west of me was the ocean, To the right the desolate shore, Line 19. I could not eat nor sleep But I did not slacken sail Till after three days more. "The days grew longer and longer, Of the red midnight sun. "And then uprose before me, "The sea was rough and stormy, "Four days I steered to eastward, Four days without a night: Round in a fiery ring Went the great sun, O King, With red and lurid light." Here Alfred, King of the Saxons, But Othere, the old sea-captain, He neither paused nor stirred, Till the King listened, and then Once more took up his pen, And wrote down every word. "And now the land," said Othere, "Bent southward suddenly, And I followed the curving shore And ever southward bore Into a nameless sea. "And there we hunted the walrus, "There were six of us all together, Norsemen of Helgoland ; In two days and no more We killed of them threescore, And dragged them to the strand!” Here Alfred the Truth-teller And lifted his blue eyes, And Othere the old sea-captain Then smiled, till his shining teeth |