BY JONATHAN LAWRENCE, JUN.
[The following lines were suggested by an anecdote said to have been related by the late Dr. Godman, of the ship-boy who was about to fall from the rigging, and was only saved by the mate's characteristic exclamation, "Look aloft, you lubber.">[
In the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale Are around and above, if thy footing should fail— If thine eye should grow dim and thy caution depart— "Look aloft" and be firm, and be fearless of heart.
If the friend, who embraced in prosperity's glow With a smile for each joy and a tear for each woe, Should betray thee when sorrow like clouds are arrayed, "Look aloft" to the friendship which never shall fade.
Should the visions which hope spreads in light to thine eye, Like the tints of the rainbow, but brighten to fly, Then turn, and through tears of repentant regret, "Look aloft" to the sun that is never to set.
Should they who are dearest, the son of thy heart— The wife of thy bosom—in sorrow depart, "Look aloft," from the darkness and dust of the tomb, To that soil where "affection is ever in bloom."
And oh! when death comes in terrors, to cast, His fears on the future, his pall on the past, In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart, And a smile in thine eye, "look aloft" and depart!
FRAGMENT.
BY WILLIAM LIVINGSTON.—1747.