THE BELL AT SEA.
[The dangerous islet called the Bell Rock, on the coast of Forfarshire, used formerly to be marked only by a bell, which was so placed as to be swung by the motion of the waves, when the tide rose above the rock. A lighthouse has since been erected there.]
When the tide’s billowy swell
Had reach’d its height,
Then toll’d the rock’s lone bell
Sternly by night.
Far over cliff and surge
Swept the deep sound,
Making each wild wind’s dirge
Still more profound.
Yet that funereal tone
The sailor bless’d,
Steering through darkness on
With fearless breast.
E’en so may we, that float
On life’s wide sea,
Welcome each warning note,
Stern though it be![390]
[390] It may be scarcely necessary to remind the reader, that the stealing of this bell by a Pirate forms the subject of Southey’s spirited ballad, “The Inchcape Rock.”