NO VESSEL IS IN SIGHT.
I
On the summit of the highest cliff that overhangs the deep,
Why daily sits that aged dame? and wherefore does she weep?
Why leans she o'er the vast abyss from morning's dawn till night,
And wherefore doth she wave a scarf? No vessel is in sight.
II
Oh! she was fam'd for beauty once, though pale and haggard now,
Her hair in raven ringlets curl'd around her snowy brow;
And plighted to a sailor youth, she sought that dizzy height
To welcome him; all day she gaz'd—no vessel was in sight!
III
He came not—oh! he never came! none knew in what wild storm
Her lover's fragile bark went down, none found his lifeless form;
And daily o'er that vast abyss she leans from morn till night,
And cries when darkness veils the sea—“No vessel is in sight!”
