 | [The Artist in the Burning Ship, in] The Odd-Fellows' offering, for 1852 |  |
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The Artist in the Burning Ship:
A Posthumous Poem.
On the dread scene he gazed unappalled,With a strange and exulting delight,
While the flames roared above in the gray, misty shrouds,
And the brave vessel reeled 'neath their might;
For his high Artist-soul, amid all—
The terror, the madness, the woe—
Forgot, in that wonderful glory and gloom,
The ruin the morrow would show.
They blazed on the black midnight heaven,
They lit up the white stormy spray,
From mast to mast wreathing like serpents of fire
Till the great ship a burning wreck lay.
And the boy lost his all in that wreck,
Yet he gave not a thought to his gold;
For he saved in his spirit that pageant of light,
And it lives there—a treasure untold.
| [The Artist in the Burning Ship, in] The Odd-Fellows' offering, for 1852 | |