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127
PITY'S PEARL.
The skies were dark, the wind was high,
The foaming ocean
Was all in motion,
And threw its billows to the sky,
Alas! Alas!
Too late the life-boat came to save;
The fishers met a watery grave,
Before friends', kindred's, children's eyes,
Their agony what could surpass?
They, shrieking, shrinking,
Saw them sinking,
Sinking, ah never more to rise!
Alas! Alas!
The foaming ocean
Was all in motion,
And threw its billows to the sky,
Alas! Alas!
Too late the life-boat came to save;
The fishers met a watery grave,
Before friends', kindred's, children's eyes,
Their agony what could surpass?
They, shrieking, shrinking,
Saw them sinking,
Sinking, ah never more to rise!
Alas! Alas!
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Gracia was walking on the shore,
She heard them shrieking,
Succour seeking,
But, ah! a tear was all her store;
Alas! Alas!
And sadly did the maiden sigh,
“Ah! why no other pearl have I,
Than that which Pity's eye now gives;
When from their hearts will sorrow pass?
The bright tear fell where waves were sighing,
Fell where a shell was aptly lying,
The shell that virgin tear receives;
Alas! Alas!
She heard them shrieking,
Succour seeking,
But, ah! a tear was all her store;
Alas! Alas!
And sadly did the maiden sigh,
“Ah! why no other pearl have I,
Than that which Pity's eye now gives;
When from their hearts will sorrow pass?
The bright tear fell where waves were sighing,
Fell where a shell was aptly lying,
The shell that virgin tear receives;
Alas! Alas!
Shrin'd in the shell, that bright tear there
By power, given
From bounteous heaven,
Became a pearl of value rare:
Oh joy! Oh joy!
The fishers' offspring, toiling, find
The pearly tear for them design'd,
A mighty sum they by it gain;
It soon o'erthrew each dark annoy,
And ere the morrow,
Banish'd sorrow—
Prov'd Gracia's tear fell not in vain,
Oh joy! Oh joy!
By power, given
From bounteous heaven,
Became a pearl of value rare:
Oh joy! Oh joy!
The fishers' offspring, toiling, find
The pearly tear for them design'd,
A mighty sum they by it gain;
129
And ere the morrow,
Banish'd sorrow—
Prov'd Gracia's tear fell not in vain,
Oh joy! Oh joy!
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