University of Virginia Library


9

THE LIGHT-HOUSES.

BAKER'S ISLAND, OFF BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Two pale sisters, all alone,
On an island bleak and bare,
Listening to the breakers' moan,
Shivering in the chilly air;
Looking inland towards a hill,
On whose top one aged tree
Wrestles with the storm-wind's will,
Rushing, wrathful, from the sea.
Two dim ghosts at dusk they seem,
Side by side, so white and tall,
Sending one long, hopeless gleam
Down the horizon's darkened wall:
Spectres, strayed from plank or spar,
With a tale none lives to tell,
Gazing at the town afar,
Where unconscious widows dwell.
Two white angels of the sea,
Guiding wave-worn wanderers home!
Sentinels of hope are ye,
Drenched with sleet, and dashed with foam,
Standing there in loneliness,
Fireside joys for men to keep;

10

Through the midnight slumberless
That the quiet shore may sleep!
Two bright eyes awake all night
To the fierce moods of the sea;
Eyes that only close when light
Dawns on lonely hill and tree!
O kind watchers! teach us, too,
Steadfast courage, sufferance long!
Where an eye is turned to you,
Should a human heart grow strong.