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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, oer 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 childhoods 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 oer his ship, | |
That Vanderdeckens name would yet make pale the speakers 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 Dutchmans 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 skippers laugh is flung upon the blast; | |
The placid ocean smiles beyond, the dreaded Cape is passed! | |
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Then northward oer 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 captains 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 een 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 Dutchmans 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 | |
Oer 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 oer the sky. | |
With fierce impatience in his heart, and scornful look of flame, | |
He spoke, and thus with impious voice blasphemed Gods 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 Makers 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 Rulers 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 oer 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 oer. A lurid lightning flash lit up the sea and sky | 95 |
Around and oer 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 oer 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 lightnings vivid sheen | |
Flashes back the oceans anger, still the Phantom Ship is seen | 110 |
Ever heading to the southward in the fierce tornados 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 Dutchmannever, never reach the shore! | |
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