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(From “Songs of Comrades”)
OUT on the isle of Mona, | |
| Mona with rocks so red, | |
| For the sins of the wreckers who preyed there once, | |
| So the tradition said, | |
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| There lived a sturdy coast-guard, | 5 |
| Watching the whole night long; | |
| And he sang to the sea, to the sea sang he, | |
| This was his simple song:— | |
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| “Only over the sea, | |
| Only over the sea! | 10 |
| There my love doth dwell, she that loves me well, | |
| Waiting and looking for me.” | |
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| Singing away the darkness, | |
| Unto the dawning white, | |
| When the sea-gulls came screaming, “A—i—e. ’Tis day!” | 15 |
| Bats shivered, “Woe for night!” | |
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| Out of the waning darkness, | |
| Driven before the sun, | |
| A ship came drifting, and drifting fast, | |
| A ship with never a sail nor mast, | 20 |
| All of its voyage done. | |
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| The coast-guard waited with hands fast clenched, | |
| Visage a purple white, | |
| “Something is here that I needs must fear, | |
| After my dream last night.” | 25 |
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| The ship came closer, the skeleton ship— | |
| Tangle of shattered ropes, | |
| Fragments of scattered hopes, | |
| Did round its timbers cling; | |
| Among the shrouds, in a hammock of wreck, | 30 |
| A dead man’s form did swing. | |
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| The coast-guard sprang with his heavy strength, | |
| And bore the body down; | |
| He drew it in to a tomb-like rock,— | |
| The dead man seemed to frown. | 35 |
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| The ship went curtseying back to sea, | |
| Like one whose task was done; | |
| The coast-guard stood, in a daze stood he, | |
| Before the blinding sun. | |
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| Of all he rescued from out the sea | 40 |
| He saw one hand alone; | |
| On all the hand he could only see | |
| One well-remembered stone. | |
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| “O ring!” the coast-guard cried, | |
| “How hast thou come to this? | 45 |
| The ring I gave her, my promised bride, | |
| With many a tear and kiss? | |
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| “Man, didst thou slay my wife? | |
| Though thou wert three times dead | |
| I would avenge her, would claim thy life | 50 |
| For each dear hair of her head. | |
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| “Or did she give my ring? | |
| How could such vileness be? | |
| Man, with the truth at your black false heart, | |
| Declare it now to me!”— | 55 |
| The dead man smiled with an awful calm, | |
| And not a word said he. | |
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| “If she be false! O God, | |
| Thou who the truth canst tell.” | |
| The coast-guard swayed like a tree up-torn, | 60 |
| And on his knees he fell. | |
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| He grasped the fingers stiff, | |
| And loosed them one by one; | |
| The dead man’s hand was a faithful hand, | |
| Its work was nearly done. | 65 |
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| A letter, held till now, | |
| Dropped from the open palm; | |
| The case was sealed with the coast-guard’s name— | |
| He read in dream-like calm. | |
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| “Love,” so it ran, “I am writing, | 70 |
| Writing our last Good-bye; | |
| I send the ring by a trusty hand, | |
| For they say I must die, must die. | |
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| Do not be broken-hearted, | |
| Lover so true, so dear; | 75 |
| The pain is nothing,—I think of you, | |
| And I know that you fain were here. | |
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| But you must hold your post, dear | |
| Must not be ruined for me; | |
| Before my letter can reach you, love, | 80 |
| I shall see you across the sea. | |
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| “Only a little while, dear, | |
| You will be free, be free! | |
| We two shall meet on the golden street, | |
| In the city that knows no sea. | 85 |
| Love, true love! | |
| Be happy, not sad, for me.” | |
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| The letter dropt from his palsied hand, | |
| Two men lay stretched on the shifting strand | |
| Like brothers lay, in a close embrace, | 90 |
| The cold sea-spray on each pale, pale face. | |
| But the one to whom living meant only pain, | |
| Was the one to be laden with life again. | |
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| Many a year has vanished; | |
| Grey is the coast-guard now, | 95 |
| With a shadowy smile in his tender eyes, | |
| Strength on his patient brow. | |
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| Still at his work he paces, | |
| Watching the whole night long; | |
| And the birds, his companions, asleep on high, | 100 |
| Hear not his passionate song. | |
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| “Only over the sea, | |
| Only over the sea! | |
| There my love doth dwell, she that loves me well, | |
| Waiting and looking for me.” | 105 |
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