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| LONG time ago, from Amsterdam a vessel sailed away,— | |
| As fair a craft as ever flung aside the laughing spray. | |
| Upon the shore were tearful eyes, and scarfs were in the air, | |
| As to her, o’er the Zuyder Zee, went fond adieu and prayer; | |
| And brave hearts, yearning shoreward from the outward-going ship, | 5 |
| Felt lingering kisses clinging still to tear-wet cheek and lip. | |
| She steered for some far eastern clime, and, as she skimmed the seas, | |
| Each taper mast was bending like a rod before the breeze. | |
| Her captain was a stalwart man,—an iron heart had he,— | |
| From childhood’s days he lived upon the rolling Zuyder Zee: | 10 |
| He nothing feared upon the earth, scarce heaven itself he feared, | |
| He would have dared and done whatever mortal man had dared! | |
| He looked aloft, where high in air the pennant cut the blue, | |
| And every rope and spar and sail was taut and strong and true. | |
| He turned him from the swelling sheet to gaze upon the shore,— | 15 |
| Ah! little thought the skipper then ’t would meet his eye no more; | |
| He dreamt not that an awful doom was hanging o’er his ship, | |
| That Vanderdecken’s name would yet make pale the speaker’s lip. | |
| The vessel bounded on her way, and dome and spire went down,— | |
| Ere darkness fell, beneath the wave had sunk the distant town. | 20 |
| No more, no more, ye hapless crew, shall Holland meet your eye. | |
| In lingering hope and keen suspense, maid, wife, and child shall die! | |
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| Away the brave sea-rover speeds, till sea and sky alone | |
| Are round her, as her coarse she steers across the torrid zone. | |
| Away, until the North Star fades, the Southern Cross is high, | 25 |
| And myriad gems of brightest beam are sparkling in the sky. | |
| The tropic winds are left behind; she nears the Cape of Storms, | |
| Where awful Tempest ever sits enthroned in wild alarms; | |
| Where Ocean in his anger shakes aloft his foamy crest, | |
| Disdainful of the proudest fleets that ride upon his breast. | 30 |
| Fierce swells the wind, the rushing wave a deadly challenge flings, | |
| And from the wrathful Dutchman’s throat a wild defiance rings: | |
| Impotent they to make him swerve, their might he dares deride, | |
| And straight he holds his onward course, in the teeth of wind and tide. | |
| For days and nights he struggles in the weird, unearthly fight. | 35 |
| His brow is bent, his eye is fierce, but looks of deep affright | |
| Amongst the mariners go round, as hopelessly they steer: | |
| They do not dare to murmur, but they whisper what they fear. | |
| Their black-browed captain awes them: ’neath his darkened eye they quail, | |
| And in a grim and sullen mood their bitter fate bewail. | 40 |
| As some fierce rider ruthless spurs a timid, wavering horse, | |
| He drives his shapely vessel, and they watch the reckless course, | |
| Till once again their skipper’s laugh is flung upon the blast; | |
| The placid ocean smiles beyond, the dreaded Cape is passed! | |
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| Then northward o’er the Indian main the barque in beauty glides; | 45 |
| A thousand murmuring ripples break along her graceful sides: | |
| The perfumed breezes fill her sails,—her destined port she nears,— | |
| The captain’s brow has lost its frown, the mariners their fears. | |
| “Land ho!” at length the welcome sound the watchful sailor sings, | |
| And soon within an Indian bay the ship at anchor swings. | 50 |
| Not idle then the busy crew: erelong the spacious hold | |
| Is emptied of its western freight, and stored with silk and gold. | |
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| Again the ponderous anchor ’s weighed; the shore is left behind, | |
| The snowy sails are bosomed out before the favoring wind. | |
| Across the warm blue Indian sea the trader southward hies, | 55 |
| And once again the North Star fades and Austral beacons rise. | |
| For home she steers! she seems to know and answer to the word, | |
| And joyous breasts the dancing wave like some fair ocean bird. | |
| “For home! for home!” the merry crew with gladsome voices cry, | |
| And e’en the sombre captain has a mild light in his eye. | 60 |
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| But once again the Cape draws near, and furious surges rise; | |
| And still the daring Dutchman’s laugh the hurricane defies. | |
| But wildly shrieked the tempest ere the scornful sound had died, | |
| A warning to the daring man to curb his impious pride. | |
| A crested mountain struck the bow, and like a frighted bird | 65 |
| She trembled ’neath the awful shock. Then Vanderdecken heard | |
| A pleading voice within the gale,—his better angel spoke, | |
| But fled before his scowling look, as mast-high billows broke | |
| O’er deck and poop and bulwark, till the crew with terror paled; | |
| But Vanderdecken never flinched, nor ’neath the thunders quailed. | 70 |
| With folded arms and stern-pressed lips, dark anger in his eye, | |
| He answered back the threatening frown that lowered o’er the sky. | |
| With fierce impatience in his heart, and scornful look of flame, | |
| He spoke, and thus with impious voice blasphemed God’s holy name:— | |
| “Howl on, ye winds! ye tempests, howl! your rage is spent in vain: | 75 |
| Despite your strength, your frowns, your hate, I ’ll ride upon the main. | |
| Defiance to your idle shrieks! I ’ll hold my chosen path: | |
| I cringe not for thy Maker’s smile,—I care not for his wrath!” | |
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| He ceased. An awful silence fell: the tempest and the sea | |
| Were hushed in sudden stillness by the Ruler’s dread decree. | 80 |
| The ship was riding motionless within the gathering gloom; | |
| The Dutchman stood upon the poop and heard his dreadful doom. | |
| The hapless crew were on the deck in swooning terror prone, | |
| They, too, were bound in fearful fate. In angered thunder-tone | |
| The judgment words swept o’er the sea: “Outcast, arraigned, condemned! | 85 |
| Go, toil forever on the deep, by shrieking tempests hemmed. | |
| No home, no port, no calm, no rest, no gentle favoring breeze, | |
| Shall ever greet thee. Go, accurst! and battle with the seas! | |
| Go, braggart! struggle with the storm, nor ever cease to live, | |
| But bear a million times the pangs that death and fear can give. | 90 |
| Away! and hide thy guilty head, a woe to all thy kind | |
| Who ever see thy hopeless strife with ocean and with wind. | |
| Away, presumptuous worm of earth! Go teach thy fellow-worms | |
| The awful fate that waits on him who braves the King of Storms!” | |
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| ’T was o’er. A lurid lightning flash lit up the sea and sky | 95 |
| Around and o’er the fated craft; then rose a wailing cry | |
| From every heart within her, of keen anguish and despair; | |
| But mercy was for them no more,—it died away in air. | |
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| Once more the lurid light gleamed out,—the ship was still at rest, | |
| The crew were standing at their posts; with arms across his breast | 100 |
| Still stood the captain on the poop, but bent and crouching now | |
| He bowed beneath that flat dread, and o’er his swarthy brow | |
| Swept lines of anguish, as if he a thousand years of pain | |
| Had lived and suffered. Then across the heaving, sullen main | |
| The tempest shrieked triumphant, and the angry waters hissed | 105 |
| Their vengeful hate against the toy they oftentimes had kissed. | |
| And ever through the midnight storm that hapless crew must speed; | |
| They try to round the Stormy Cape, but never can succeed. | |
| And oft when gales are wildest, and the lightning’s vivid sheen | |
| Flashes back the ocean’s anger, still the Phantom Ship is seen | 110 |
| Ever heading to the southward in the fierce tornado’s swoop, | |
| With her ghostly crew and canvas, and her captain on the poop, | |
| Unrelenting, unforgiven; and ’t is said that every word | |
| Of his blasphemous defiance still upon the gale is heard! | |
| But heaven help the luckless ones to whom the sight appears,— | 115 |
| The doom of those is sealed near whom the ghastly sailor steers; | |
| They ’ll never reach their destined port,—they ’ll see their homes no more,— | |
| They who see the Flying Dutchman—never, never reach the shore! | |
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