| |
| YES! let us mount this gallant ship; | |
| Spread canvas to the wind,— | |
| Up! we will seek the glowing South,— | |
| Leave care and cold behind. | |
| |
| Let the shark pursue through the waters blue | 5 |
| Our flying vessel’s track; | |
| Let strong winds blow, and rocks below | |
| Threaten,—we turn not back. | |
| |
| Trusting in Him who holds the sea | |
| In his Almighty hand, | 10 |
| We pass the awful waters wide, | |
| Tread many a far-off strand. | |
| |
| Right onward as our course we hold, | |
| From day to day, the sky | |
| Above our head its arch shall spread | 15 |
| More glowing, bright, and high; | |
| |
| And from night to night—oh, what delight! | |
| In its azure depths to mark | |
| Stars all unknown come glittering out | |
| Over the ocean dark. | 20 |
| |
| The moon uprising like a sun, | |
| So stately, large, and sheen, | |
| And the very stars, like clustered moons, | |
| In the crystal ether keen. | |
| |
| Whilst all about the ship, below, | 25 |
| Strange, fiery billows play,— | |
| The ceaseless keel through liquid fire | |
| Cuts wondrously its way. | |
| |
| But oh, the South! the balmy South! | |
| How warm the breezes float! | 30 |
| How warm the amber waters stream | |
| From off our basking boat! | |
| |
| Come down, come down from the tall ship’s side,— | |
| What a marvellous sight is here! | |
| Look! purple rocks and crimson trees, | 35 |
| Down in the deep so clear. | |
| |
| See! where those shoals of dolphins go, | |
| A glad and glorious band, | |
| Sporting amongst the roseate woods | |
| Of a coral fairy-land. | 40 |
| |
| See! on the violet sands beneath | |
| How the gorgeous shells do glide! | |
| O sea! old sea, who yet knows half | |
| Of thy wonders and thy pride! | |
| |
| Look how the sea-plants trembling float, | 45 |
| As it were like a mermaid’s locks, | |
| Waving in thread of ruby red | |
| Over those nether rocks, | |
| |
| Heaving and sinking, soft and fair, | |
| Here hyacinth, there green,— | 50 |
| With many a stem of golden growth, | |
| And starry flowers between. | |
| |
| But away! away to upper day! | |
| For monstrous shapes are here,— | |
| Monsters of dark and wallowing bulk, | 55 |
| And horny eyeballs drear: | |
| |
| The tuskéd mouth, and the spiny fin, | |
| Speckled and warted back; | |
| The glittering swift, and the flabby slow, | |
| Ramp through this deep sea track. | 60 |
| |
| Away! away! to upper day, | |
| To glance o’er the breezy brine, | |
| And see the nautilus gladly sail, | |
| The flying-fish leap and shine. | |
| |
| But what is that? “’T is land! ’T is land! | 65 |
| ’T is land!” the sailors cry. | |
| Nay! ’t is a long and a narrow cloud | |
| Betwixt the sea and sky. | |
| |
| “’T is land! ’t is land!” they cry once more; | |
| And now comes breathing on | 70 |
| An odor of the living earth, | |
| Such as the sea hath none. | |
| |
| But now I mark the rising shores! | |
| The purple hills! the trees! | |
| Ah! what a glorious land is here, | 75 |
| What happy scenes are these! | |
| |
| See! how the tall palms lift their locks | |
| From mountain clefts,—what vales, | |
| Basking beneath the noontide sun, | |
| That high and hotly sails. | 80 |
| |
| Yet all about the breezy shore, | |
| Unheedful of the glow, | |
| Look how the children of the South | |
| Are passing to and fro! | |
| |
| What noble forms! what fairy place! | 85 |
| Cast anchor in this cove, | |
| Push out the boat, for in this land | |
| A little we must rove! | |
| |
| We ’ll wander on through wood and field, | |
| We ’ll sit beneath the vine; | 90 |
| We ’ll drink the limpid cocoa-milk, | |
| And pluck the native pine. | |
| |
| The bread-fruit and cassada-root, | |
| And many a glowing berry, | |
| Shall be our feast; for here, at least, | 95 |
| Why should we not be merry! | |
| |
| For ’t is a southern paradise, | |
| All gladsome,—plain and shore,— | |
| A land so far that here we are, | |
| But shall be here no more. | 100 |
| |
| We ’ve seen the splendid southern clime, | |
| Its seas and isles and men; | |
| So now! back to a dearer land,— | |
| To England back again! | |
| |
