XXVII.
The fanfare of the trumpets of the sea
Assaults the air with jubilant foray;
The intolerable exigence of glee
Shouts to the sun and leaps in radiant spray;
The laughter of the breakers on the shore
Shakes like the mirth of Titans heard at play,
With thunders of tumultuous uproar.
XXVIII.
PLAYMATE of terrors! Intimate of Doom!
Fellow of Fate and Death! Exultant Sea!
Thou strong companion of the Sun, make room!
Let me make one with you, rough comrade Sea!
Sea of the boisterous sport of wind and spray!
Sea of the lion mirth! Sonorous Sea!
I hear thy shout, I know what thou wouldst say.
XXIX.
Dauntless, triumphant, reckless of alarms,
O Queen that laughest Time and Fear to scorn,
Death, like a bridegroom, tosses in thine arms.
The rapture of your fellowship is borne
Like music on the wind. I hear the blare,
The calling of the undesisting horn,
And tremors as of trumpets on the air.
XXX.
SEA-CAPTAIN of whose keels the Sea is fain,
Death, Master of a thousand ships, each prow
That sets against the thunders of the main
Is lyric with thy mirth. I know thee now,
O Death, I shout back to thy hearty hail,
Thou of the great heart and the cavernous brow,
Strong Seaman at whose look the north winds quail.