Flower Pieces and other poems By William Allingham: With two designs by Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
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THE PILOT BOAT. |
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 | Flower Pieces and other poems |  |
179
THE PILOT BOAT.
I.
A schooner's in the bay,With a signal at her fore;
And I heard the Pilot say—
‘Tho' a squall may come to-night,
We shall get on board all right,
And the tide begins to flow at break of day.’
‘Shove her off, my lad,’ cries he,
‘We've a craft that's fit for sea!’
And the ripples on the shore
Murmur softly as they run
Through the crimson evening light,
While the father and the son
Sail away.
II.
When cliff and wave grow dark,Shines a cottage by the strand
With its feeble taper-spark,
Where the pilot's wife is sewing,
Whilst her little children sleep;
All the gloomy heav'n above no glimmer showing.
Ha!—lightning!—and a crash
Like the downfall of the skies;
Rushing rain, booming deep,
Sudden gale with fury blowing.
Out of nothing, at each flash
Leap the dreadful sea and land.
Was that wind she heard? or—hark!
Shouts and cries?
180
III.
A morn remorseful, pale,For the frenzy overpast,—
A sullen sinking gale,—
Flying clouds, torn and shatter'd,
And a dismal gleam of day through them cast
On the wilderness in motion
Of the ghastly rugged ocean
With its dull unceasing roar,
And the birds that scream and flee,
And the misty wreck-strewn shore,
And a black unmoving Boat
Flung keel upwards, bruised and batter'd,
Past the help of sail or oar.
But the Pilot, stout and steady,
And his boy, brave and ready,—
On what voyage, on what sea,
Do they float?
| Flower Pieces and other poems | |