The night comes on, the night is dark,
More dark the billows seem;
They break against the ship, and hark!
The seamew's mournful scream.
The boy upon his pillow lies,
In sweet repose he sinks;
And, as he shuts his weary eyes,
On the poor ship he thinks.
The sun shines o'er the watery main
As it did the day before;
The father and his son again
Are seated on the shore.
With the western wind full many a boat
Their white sails gayly fill,
They lightly o'er the blue waves float,—
But the gallant ship is still.
The sailors now the mournful wreck
Of masts and rigging strip;
The waves are playing o'er the deck
Of the sad and ruined ship.
A crow upon the top branch stood
Of a lone and blasted tree;
He seemed to look upon the flood
With a gloomy sympathy.
The boy now looks up at the bird,
At the sinking vessel now;
He does not speak a single word.
But a shade is on his brow.
Now slowly comes a towering wave,
And sweeps with triumph on;
It bears her to her watery grave,—
The gallant ship is gone.
Hushed is the ocean's stormy roar,
Still as an infant's joy;
The father sits upon the shore
In silence with his boy.
Cohasset Shore, July, 1831.