He scoured the seas for many a day;
And now grown rich with plundered store,
He steers his course for Scotland's shore.

12. So thick a haze o'erspreads the sky
They can not see the sun on high;
The wind hath blown a gale all day,
At evening it hath died away.

13. On the deck the Rover takes his stand,
So dark it is they see no land.
Quoth Sir Ralph, "It will be lighter soon,
For there is the dawn of the rising moon."

14. "Canst hear," said one, "the breakers roar?
For methinks we should be near the shore."
"Now where we are I can not tell,
But I wish I could hear the Inchcape Bell."

15. They hear no sound, the swell is strong;
Though the wind hath fallen, they drift along,
Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock:
Cried they, "It is the Inchcape Rock!"

16. Sir Ralph the rover tore his hair,
He curst himself in his despair;
The waves rush in on every side,
The ship is sinking beneath the tide.

17. But even in his dying fear
One dreadful sound could the Rover hear,
A sound as if with the Inchcape Bell
The fiends below were ringing his knell.

DEFINITIONS.--l. Keel, the principal timber in a ship, extending from bow
to stern, at the bottom. 3. Buoy (pro. bwoi) a float-ing mark to point out
the position of rocks, etc., beneath the water. 4. Surge, a large wave. 6.
Joy'ance, gayety. 11. Scoured, roved over, ranged about. Store,
that which is massed together. 14. Me-thinks', it seems to me. 17. Fiends
(pro. fends). evil spirits. Knell (pro. nel), the stroke of a bell rung
at a funeral or at the death of a person.

NOTES.--The above poem was written at Bristol, England, in 1802, and
recounts an old tradition. 2. The Inchcape Rock is at the entrance of the
Frith of Tay, Scotland, about fifteen miles from shore.

LXXXIX. MY MOTHER'S GRAVE. (253)

1. It was thirteen years since my mother's death, when, after a long
absence from my native village, I stood beside the sacred mound beneath
which I had seen her buried. Since that mournful period, a great change
had come over me. My childish years had passed away, and with them my
youthful character. The world was altered, too; and as I stood at my
mother's grave, I could hardly realize that I was the same thoughtless,
happy creature, whose checks she so often kissed in an excess of
tenderness.

2. But the varied events of thirteen years had not effaced the reme