Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems By the Lady E. Stuart Wortley. In Three Vols |
 | I, II, III. |
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THE BARK. |
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 | Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems |  |
THE BARK.
Oh! thou wert launched in triumph, Bark!
In gladness and in hope—
What breast could dream of care or cark,
What spirit then could droop?
In gladness and in hope—
What breast could dream of care or cark,
What spirit then could droop?
Cheerily thou careeredst—Bark!—
While thy straightened streamer flew,
And shone like a Star through the glimmering dark,
Like a rainbow the day-time through!
While thy straightened streamer flew,
And shone like a Star through the glimmering dark,
Like a rainbow the day-time through!
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Terribly didst thou struggle—Bark!
With thy streamer soiled and torn,
That erst flew high like the gay skylark,
Up—up in the light of morn!
With thy streamer soiled and torn,
That erst flew high like the gay skylark,
Up—up in the light of morn!
Terribly didst thou struggle—Bark!
When the tempest ruled the hour,
Thou seemedst but as a helpless mark
For the billows' strokes of power!
When the tempest ruled the hour,
Thou seemedst but as a helpless mark
For the billows' strokes of power!
When the storms came down, when the great winds roared,
Like maddened lions fierce—
And the sounds of wrath went all abroad,
Even the Ocean-depths to pierce.
Like maddened lions fierce—
And the sounds of wrath went all abroad,
Even the Ocean-depths to pierce.
Silently thou art dwelling—Bark!
In those depths' black keyless hold,
In the gloomy silence—the gloomy dark—
In the stillness and the cold.
In those depths' black keyless hold,
In the gloomy silence—the gloomy dark—
In the stillness and the cold.
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O'er thy deck is the heavy sea-weed trailed,
There the finny people play,
Thy lofty sides they are stained and scaled,
Thou'rt check'd on thy foamy way.
There the finny people play,
Thy lofty sides they are stained and scaled,
Thou'rt check'd on thy foamy way.
And they that sunk with thee—foundered Bark!
The loved—the prized—and the lost!
Ah! surely they in a surer ark
Were borne to a bright bright coast!
The loved—the prized—and the lost!
Ah! surely they in a surer ark
Were borne to a bright bright coast!
The roar of the Seas and Winds no more
Shall fill them with trembling fear,
They are landed safe on the unstormy shore
Of a bright and deathless sphere!
Shall fill them with trembling fear,
They are landed safe on the unstormy shore
Of a bright and deathless sphere!
| Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems | |