Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

Southern States: Kitty Hawk, N. C.

The Wreck of the Huron

By Edith M. Thomas (1854–1925)

ROCKS and shoals of the sea,

Tide of the under-waves,

Surf of the moaning lee,

Where the hurricane raves,—

Green steeps that are storm-rent and sterile,

Wild-sown with the spoils of the shore,—

The night has passed on and the peril,

And the mariners struggle no more.

Sing for the brave ship lost:

Chant for the lives that lie

In unknown haven tossed,

Under a sobbing sky.

Sing requiem, praise to the valor

Unshaken though Fate held the scourge;

But dawnlight unveils the stern pallor

Of faces swept cold by the surge.

Wreck on the sullen bar,

Never in battle a-sea,

Iron-girted for war,

Challenge shall echo from thee:

Storm, darkness, and depths are thy foemen,

And each hero stood to his post;

But master and sailor and yeomen,

Their names shall give fame to the coast.

Gulfs and caves of the deep,

Aged seas without pulse,

Let them sleep well who sleep

Lapped in sea-weed and dulse;

They miss not the legend engraven,

The delicate springing of flowers,

They miss, who, by inland and haven,

Sit still through the sorrowful hours!