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(A.D. 1580)
SOUTH and far south below the Line, | |
| Our Admiral leads us on, | |
| Above, undreamed-of planets shine— | |
| The stars we knew are gone. | |
| Around, our clustered seamen mark | 5 |
| The silent deep ablaze | |
| With fires, through which the far-down shark | |
| Shoots glimmering on his ways. | |
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| The sultry tropic breezes fail | |
| That plagued us all day through; | 10 |
| Like molten silver hangs our sail, | |
| Our decks are dark with dew. | |
| Now the rank moon commands the sky, | |
| Ho! Bid the watch beware | |
| And rouse all sleeping men that lie | 15 |
| Unsheltered in her glare. | |
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| How long the time ’twixt bell and bell! | |
| How still our lanthorns burn! | |
| How strange our whispered words that tell | |
| Of England and return! | 20 |
| Old towns, old streets, old friends, old loves, | |
| We name them each to each, | |
| While the lit face of Heaven removes | |
| Them farther from our reach. | |
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| Now is the utmost ebb of night | 25 |
| When mind and body sink, | |
| And loneliness and gathering fright | |
| O’erwhelm us, if we think— | |
| Yet, look, where in his room apart, | |
| All windows opened wide, | 30 |
| Our Admiral thrusts away the chart | |
| And comes to walk outside. | |
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| Kindly, from man to man he goes, | |
| With comfort, praise, or jest, | |
| Quick to suspect our childish woes, | 35 |
| Our terror and unrest. | |
| It is as though the sun should shine— | |
| Our midnight fears are gone! | |
| South and far south below the Line, | |
| Our Admiral leads us on! | 40 |
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