Like men at peace on a peaceful shore;
Each sail was loosed to the wind so free,
Each helm made sure by the twilight star,
And in a sleep as calm as death,
We, the strangers from afar,

Lay stretched along, each weary crew
In a circle round its wondrous tent,

Whence gleamed soft light and curled rich scent,
And, with light and perfume, music too :

So the stars wheeled round, and the darkness past,
And at morn we started beside the mast,
And still each ship was sailing fast!

One morn the land appeared! a speck
Dim trembling betwixt sea and sky.
"Avoid it," cried our pilot, "check

The shout, restrain the longing eye!"
But the heaving sea was black behind
For many a night and many a day,
And land, though but a rock, drew nigh;
So we broke the cedar pales away,
Let the purple awning flap in the wind,

And a statue bright was on every deck!

We shouted, every man of us,

And steered right into the harbor thus,
With pomp and pæan glorious.

An hundred shapes of lucid stone!

All day we built a shrine for each

A shrine of rock for every one-
Nor paused we, till in the westering sun
We sate together on the beach

THE SECRET OF THE SEA.

To sing, because our task was done ;
When lo! what shouts and merry songs!
What laughter all the distance stirs !
What raft comes loaded with its throngs
Of gentle islanders?

"The isles are just at hand," they cried;
"Like cloudlets faint at even sleeping,
Our temple-gates are opened wide,

Our olive-groves thick shade are keeping
For the lucid shapes you bring," they cried.
Oh, then we awoke with sudden start
From our deep dream; we knew, too late,
How bare the rock, how desolate,

To which we had flung our precious freight :
Yet we called out, Depart !

66

Our gifts, once given, must here abide :
Our work is done; we have no heart
To mar our work, though vain," we cried.
R. Browning.

THE SECRET OF THE SEA.

A

H! what pleasant visions haunt me,
As I gaze upon the sea!

All the old romantic legends,

All my dreams come back to me.

Sails of silk and ropes of sendal,

Such as gleam in ancient lore;

And the singing of the sailors,

And the answer from the shore!

25

Most of all, the Spanish ballad
Haunts me oft, and tarries long,
Of the noble Count Arnaldos
And the sailor's mystic song.

Like the long waves on a sea-beach,
Where the sand as silver shines,
With a soft, monotonous cadence,
Flow its unrhymed lyric lines-

Telling how the Count Arnaldos,
With his hawk upon his hand,
Saw a fair and stately galley,
Steering onward to the land;

How he heard the ancient helmsman
Chant a song so wild and clear,
That the sailing sea-bird slowly

Poised upon the mast to hear,

Till his soul was full of longing,

And he cried, with impulse strong, "Helmsman! for the love of heaven, Teach me, too, that wondrous song!"

"Would'st thou," so the helmsman answered, "Learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers Comprehend its mystery!"

HOME-THOUGHTS FROM THE SEA. 27

In each sail that skims the horizon,
In each landward blowing breeze,
I behold that stately galley,

Hear those mournful melodies;

Till my soul is full of longing
For the secret of the sea,

And the heart of the great ocean

Sends a thrilling pulse through me.

H. W. Longfellow.

HOME-THOUGHTS FROM THE SEA.

NOB

OBLY, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the northwest died away;

Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into

Cadiz Bay;

Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar

lay;

In the dimmest northeast distance dawned Gibral

tar grand and gray ;

"Here and here did England help me-how can I help England?" say

Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and pray,

While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent, over Africa.

R. Browning.

I

SHIPS AT SEA.

HAVE ships that went to sea
More than fifty years ago;
None have yet come home to me,
But are sailing to and fro.

I have seen them in my sleep,
Plunging through the shoreless deep,
With tattered sails, and battered hulls,
While around them screamed the gulls,
Flying low-flying low.

I have wondered why they stayed
From me, sailing round the world;
And I've said, "I'm half afraid

That their sails will ne'er be furled." Great the treasure that they holdSilks, and plumes, and bars of gold; While the spices that they bear Fill with fragrance all the air, As they sail-as they sail.

Ah! each sailor in the port

Knows that I have ships at sea,
Of the waves and winds the sport;
And the sailors pity me.

Oft they come and with me walk,
Cheering me with hopeful talk,
Till I put my fears aside,
And, contented, watch the tide

Rise and fall-rise and fall.