FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59  
60   >>  
BLUFF _A Reverie_ October, 1861 One noonday, at my window in the town, I saw a sight--saddest that eyes can see-- Young soldiers marching lustily Unto the wars, With fifes, and flags in mottoed pageantry; While all the porches, walks, and doors Were rich with ladies cheering royally. They moved like Juny morning on the wave, Their hearts were fresh as clover in its prime (It was the breezy summer time), Life throbbed so strong, How should they dream that Death in a rosy clime Would come to thin their shining throng? Youth feels immortal, like the gods sublime. Weeks passed; and at my window, leaving bed, By night I mused, of easeful sleep bereft, On those 'brave boys (Ah War! thy theft); Some marching feet Found pause at last by cliffs Potomac cleft; Wakeful I mused, while in the street Far footfalls died away till none were left. THE STONE FLEET _An Old Sailor's Lament_ December, 1861 I have a feeling for those ships, Each worn and ancient one, With great bluff bows, and broad in the beam: Ay, it was unkindly done. But so they serve the Obsolete-- Even so, Stone Fleet! You'll say I'm doting; do you think I scudded round the Horn in one-- The _Tenedos,_ a glorious Good old craft as ever run-- Sunk (how all unmeet!) With the Old Stone Fleet. An India ship of fame was she, Spices and shawls and fans she bore; A whaler when the wrinkles came-- Turned off! till, spent and poor, Her bones were sold (escheat)! Ah! Stone Fleet. Four were erst patrician keels (Names attest what families be), The _Kensington,_ and _Richmond_ too, _Leonidas,_ and _Lee_: But now they have their seat With the Old Stone Fleet. To scuttle them--a pirate deed-- Sack them, and dismast; They sunk so slow, they died so hard, But gurgling dropped at last. Their ghosts in gales repeat _Woe's us, Stone Fleet!_ And all for naught. The waters pass-- Currents will have their way; Nature is nobody's ally; 'tis well; The harbor is bettered--will stay. A failure, and complete, Was your Old Stone Fleet. THE TEMERAIRE _Supposed to have been suggested to an Englishman of the old order by the fight of the Monitor and Merrimac_ The gloomy hulls in armor grim, Like clouds o'er moors have met, And prove that oak, and iron, and man Are tough in fibre yet.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59  
60   >>  



Top keywords:
marching
 
window
 
escheat
 
scudded
 

families

 

Kensington

 

Richmond

 

doting

 

attest

 

patrician


Tenedos

 

whaler

 

shawls

 

Spices

 

unmeet

 

Turned

 

wrinkles

 
glorious
 
Englishman
 

Monitor


gloomy

 

Merrimac

 
suggested
 

complete

 

failure

 

Supposed

 
TEMERAIRE
 

clouds

 

bettered

 
dismast

dropped

 
gurgling
 

pirate

 

Leonidas

 
scuttle
 

ghosts

 

Nature

 

harbor

 

Currents

 

repeat


naught

 
waters
 
clover
 

breezy

 

hearts

 

royally

 

morning

 

summer

 

shining

 
throbbed