ON THE CREW OF A VESSEL
- WHO WERE FOUND DEAD AT SEA.
-
- by: Lucretia Davidson
(1808-1825)
- HE breeze blew fair, the waving
sea
- Curled sparkling round the vessel's side;
- The canvass spread with bosom free
- Its swan-like pinions o'er the tide.
-
- Evening had gemmed with glittering stars,
- Her coronet so darkly grand;
- The Queen of Night, with fleecy clouds,
- Had formed her turban's snowy band.
-
- On, on the stately vessel flew,
- With streamer waving far and wide;
- When lo! a bark appeared in view,
- And gaily danced upon the tide.
-
- Each way the breeze its wild wing veered,
- That way the stranger vessel turned;
- Now near she drew, now wafted far,
- She fluttered, trembled, and returned.
-
- "It is the pirate's cursed bark!
- The villains linger to decoy!
- Thus bounding o'er the waters dark,
- They seek to lure, and then destroy.
-
- "Perchance, those strange and wayward signs
- May be the signals of distress,"
- The Captain cried, "for mark ye, now,
- Her sails are flapping wide and loose."
-
- And now the stranger vessel came
- Near to that gay and gallant bark;
- It seemed a wanderer fair and lone,
- Upon Life's wave, so deep and dark.
-
- And not a murmur, not a sound,
- Came from that lone and dreary ship;
- The icy chains of silence bound
- Each rayless eye and pallid lip.
-
- For Death's wing had been waving there,
- The cold dew hung on every brow,
- And sparkled there, like angel tears,
- Shed o'er the silent crew below.
-
- Onward that ship was gaily flying,
- Its bosom the sailor's grave;
- The breeze, 'mid the shrouds, in low notes, sighing.
- Their requiem over the brave.
-
- Fly on, fly on, thou lone vessel of death,
- Fly on, with thy desolate crew;
- For mermaids are twining a sea-weed wreath,
- 'Mong the red coral groves for you.
"On the Crew of a Vessel"
is reprinted from Poetical Remains of the Late Lucretia Maria
Davidson, Collected and Arranged by Her Mother. Lucretia
Maria Davidson. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1841. |
MORE
POEMS BY LUCRETIA DAVIDSON |
|
|
|
|