The Downing legends : Stories in Rhyme :: :: University of Virginia Library

“The malediction hath not failed,
For, since it larumed, we have sailed—
O Jesus! how we sail thy seas
To win a port that ever flees,
To win the land that gave us birth;
Yea, that or any alien earth!

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How often hath our galley spanned
A world where many cities stand;
Where gladsome creatures throng the ways
And thankful belfries call to praise;
Where flowrets bloom and branches swing
And insects hum and birdlets sing;
Where even brutes tread fragrant turf
And lusty shores withstand the surf;
How often round such pleasant world,
How woful often have we whirled,
And found it but a howling nest
Of demon waves that never rest!

All earthly forms, all coastwise shapes,
The haughty cliffs, the prowling capes,
The very mountains huge and hoar
That sentried otherwhiles the shore,
And beckoned us from zone to zone,
Have vanished into graves unknown.
Yea, fiery isles that sunward rolled
Their solemn smokings, fold on fold,
Like giants burning sacrifice
And waving incense tow'rd the skies;
Or, seen through oceanic night,
Now panted breaths of filmy light,
Now held a lurid shaft aloft
Whose chapter reached the starry croft;
These, too, have flyted from their posts
As utterly as shriven ghosts.

The elfin picture-lands that slide
From beetling cliff or mountain side
Deep into gulfs of liquid steel;

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And, smiling far below the keel,
Bewitch the sailor with their guiles
Until he sees hesperian isles
Of verdant grove and sunny knoll,
And hears their belfries call his soul;
E'en these enchantments of the deep,
These wizard dreams of ocean's sleep,
We sought with care through many seas,
And found them not—not even these!