“Dark Eltha still sings but her song is slow,
“And the west wind catches its mournful
“The mariners wonder the changed lay,
“As their slothful barks calm lingering stay:
“The songstress’ cheek is wan and pale,
“And her tresses neglected float on the gale;
“The sea flower is thrown on its rocky bed,
“The once gay Eltha’s peace is fled,
“The eye of the Maiden is dark and bright,
“But it rivals no more the diamond’s light.
“Now many a day thou hast gaz’d o’er the sea
“For the bark of thy lover in vain,
“And many a storm thou hast shudder’d to see
“Spread its wings o’er the anger’d main:
“—Is he faithless the stranger?—forgetful of thee?
“Thou beauteous Maiden of the Sea.
“On many a whiten’d sail hast thou gaz’d,
“Till the lazy breeze bore it on,
“But they pass, and thy weary eyes are glaz’d,
“As they trace the bark just gone:
“None have the pennon, so free and fair,
“As the stranger ship which once tarried there.
“On yon tall cliff to whose broken base
“Loud surging waves for ever race,
“A form is bent o’er the fearful height,
“So eager, that a feather’s weight
“Would cast its poised balance o’er,
“And leave a mangled corse on the shore.
“——-’Tis Eltha’s form, that with eager glance,
“Scans the wide world of waves, as they dance,
“Uprais’d by the sigh of the east wind chill,
“Which wafts to the ear the scream so shrill
“Of the whirling sea mews, as landward they fly,
“—To seamen a mark that the storm is nigh.
“And what is yon distant speck on the sea,
“That seems but a floating beam,
“Save that a pennon fair and free
“Waves in the sun’s bright gleam?
“A bark is driven with rapid sail,
“Its pennon far spread on the moaning gale,
“A foamy track at its angry keel,
“And the billows around it maddening reel;
“The white fring’d surges dash over its prow
“As its masts to the pressing canvass bow—
“But O with rapid, fiend-like, haste,
“The breeze rolls o’er the watery waste,
“And louder is heard the deaf’ning roar
“Of the waves dashing fierce on the trembling shore,
“Ten thousand eddying billows recede,
“And return again with an arrow’s speed,
“Till the flaky foam on the wind is spread,
“Far, far above their ocean bed,
“And boom o’er the cliff where Eltha’s form
“Is seen to await the deadly storm.
“Keep to the wind with a taughten’d sheet,[362]
“Thou bark from a stranger land,
“No daring northern pilot would meet
“A storm like this near the strand;
“No kindly haven of shelter is here,
“Then whilst thou may,—to seaward steer;
“But thou com’st, with a wide and flowing sail,
“To a rock bound coast in an eastern gale,
“Thou wilt see the danger around thee at last,
“When the hour of safety for ever is past;
“——And O it is past, thou art now embay’d,
“And around thee gathers the evening shade,
“Thy last sun has set in a red, red sky,
“Thy last Vesper hymn is the fearful cry
“Of the ominous sea bird shrieking on high.
“The night and the storm have hidden from view
“The fated ship and her gallant crew,
“And the last sight seen on the foamy sea
“Was a pennon broad streaming fair and free.
********
“The morrow is come and the storm is o’er,
“And the billows more slowly dash,
“But shatter’d timbers are spread on the shore
“Beyond the ebb-waves’ wash:
“Still are the hearts of the gallant band
“Which erst did beat so true;
“They’ll never more see their fatherland,
“Where their playful childhood grew.