| |
| ‘WHAT was the hardest hour’, you ask, | |
| ‘Ever I had at sea?’ | |
| There was that in the wreck of the Mary Ross | |
| Is bitten into me. | |
| |
| Five merry weeks of sun and speed, | 5 |
| A ship well mann’d and stout— | |
| One hour from home she falter’d, stopp’d | |
| Short … and the lights went out. | |
| |
| What follow’d—O just-dealing God, | |
| How firm must be Thy mind, | 10 |
| Such a beginning to have given | |
| And such an end design’d! | |
| |
| …Sudden, from human eyes and hands | |
| And kindred human breath, | |
| Into the wild black Void, into | 15 |
| The unthought-on fangs of Death… | |
| |
| …The bitter cold was all—then breath | |
| Again, and something cross’d | |
| My clutching fingers; with a spar | |
| Now was I driven and toss’d. | 20 |
| |
| Where were the rest? My strain’d ear caught | |
| No answer … Dazed and stark, | |
| Moments it may have been, or hours, | |
| Dash’d thro’ the roaring dark. | |
| |
| I thought that I must have traversed Time | 25 |
| And touch’d Eternity, | |
| When, high in the air, a cry, a wail: | |
| ‘I am afraid! Save me!’ | |
| |
| And yonder!—Oh what ’s that blacker black | |
| Bulged out upon the gloom? | 30 |
| By the glint of the whirling spray I saw | |
| Her lifted stern-post loom. | |
| |
| ‘Save me!’ Oh what ’s yon whiter speck | |
| O’er the yeasty glimmer wild? | |
| Terribly flashed the hasty moon | 35 |
| On—the face of a little child! | |
| |
| Back chased the blessed dark—but, oh! | |
| I’d seen! Aye, all too clear | |
| I see her still—the piteous mouth, | |
| The great eyes fixt with fear. | 40 |
| |
| Not an hour since upon my knee | |
| Her good-night pranks were play’d, | |
| And now—to face Death … and alone… | |
| God! and afraid? ‘Afraid!’ | |
| |
| Oh, I cried from the trough—I promised her | 45 |
| The help that I could not give. | |
| The wind drove back my words—the waves | |
| Drove on their fugitive. | |
| |
| ‘Somebody save me!’ And again | |
| For one mad second’s space, | 50 |
| ’Mid the rushing rack the quiet moon, | |
| ’Mid the wide void, that face! | |
| |
| And she saw me! Great Heaven, she smiled! | |
| Stretch’d out her arms and cried, | |
| ‘Save me!’ and half my name—and then… | 55 |
| Then she was pacified. | |
| |
| For … a swirl … a suck … when next I rose, | |
| Naught, save the stormy roar! | |
| Down in the darkness I thank’d God. | |
| She was afraid no more. | 60 |
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