The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker Edited from the original manuscripts and annotated copies together with a prefatory notice and bibliography by Alfred Wallis |
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THE FATAL SHIP.
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 | The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker |  |
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THE FATAL SHIP.
Down the deep sea, full fourscore fathoms down,
An iron vault hath clutched five hundred men!
They died not, like the nations, one by one:
A thrill! a bounding pulse! a shout! and then
Five hundred hearts stood still, at once, nor beat again!
An iron vault hath clutched five hundred men!
They died not, like the nations, one by one:
A thrill! a bounding pulse! a shout! and then
Five hundred hearts stood still, at once, nor beat again!
That night the Angel of the Lord beheld
A vast battalion of the gliding dead:
Souls that came up where seething surges quelled
Their stately ship—their throne—and now the bed
Where they shall wait, in shrouded sleep, the Morn of Dread!
A vast battalion of the gliding dead:
Souls that came up where seething surges quelled
Their stately ship—their throne—and now the bed
Where they shall wait, in shrouded sleep, the Morn of Dread!
Fast slept the sailor-boy! A silent dream
Soften'd his brow with smiles—his mother's face
Droops over him—and her soft kisses seem
Warm on his cheek: what severs that embrace?
Death! strangling death!—alive—a conscious burialplace!
Soften'd his brow with smiles—his mother's face
Droops over him—and her soft kisses seem
Warm on his cheek: what severs that embrace?
Death! strangling death!—alive—a conscious burialplace!
And he, the kingly mind,
whose skill had planned
That lordly bastion of the world of wave?
But yesterday he stood, in proud command,
And now a thing of nought, where ocean raves
Above his shuddering sepulchre in the weedy caves!
That lordly bastion of the world of wave?
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And now a thing of nought, where ocean raves
Above his shuddering sepulchre in the weedy caves!
The monsters of the sea will glide and glare:
Baffled Leviathan shall roar in vain:
The Sea Kings of the Isles are castled there:
They man that silent fortress of the main:
Yea! in the realms of death their dust shall rule and reign!
Baffled Leviathan shall roar in vain:
The Sea Kings of the Isles are castled there:
They man that silent fortress of the main:
Yea! in the realms of death their dust shall rule and reign!
Lord Yahvah
of the Waters! Thou wert there!
Thy presence shone throughout that dark abode:
Thy mighty touch assuaged the last despair:
Their pulses paused in the calm midst of God:
Their souls, amid surrounding Angels, went abroad!
Thy presence shone throughout that dark abode:
Thy mighty touch assuaged the last despair:
Their pulses paused in the calm midst of God:
Their souls, amid surrounding Angels, went abroad!
1870.
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