OTHER POETS OF THE OCEAN. 99 



' ' Yet shall poor Tom find pleasant weather 



When He who all commands 

 Shall give, to call life's crew together, 



The word to pipe all hands. 

 Thus death, who kings and tars despatches, 



In vain Tom's life has doffed ; 

 For though his body's under hatches 



His soul is gone aloft." 



Eliza Cook * has followed the same vein in her " Gallant English Tar/' and has also 

 paid a worthy tribute to those hardy sons of Neptune, " The Boatmen of the Downs/' 



" There 's fury in the tempest, and there 's madness in the waves, 

 The lightning snake coils round the foam, the headlong thunder raves ; 

 Yet a hoat is on the waters filled with Britain's daring sons, 

 Who pull like lions out to sea, and count the minute guns. 

 'Tis mercy calls them to the work a ship is in distress ! 

 Away they speed with timely help that many a heart shall bless ; 

 And braver deeds than ever turned the fate of kings and crowns 

 Are done for England's glory by her boatmen of the Downs ! " 



Perhaps no modern verses are more popular with all lovers of true poetry than the 

 " Casabianca " of Mrs. Hemans, Longfellow's "Wreck of the Hesper us" and Kingsley's 

 " Three Fishers ; " and no wonder, for they touch a chord in every heart, while vividly 

 portraying the perils of a seafaring life. In the story of the " burning deck " we have 

 the record of a true sailor boy, who would not desert his "lone post of death/' And 



" The noblest thing that perished there 

 Was that young faithful heart ! " 



In the second-named poem the skipper has taken his little daughter to "bear him 

 company." A hurricane rises, and it is the poor frightened child who alone hears the " fog- 

 bell on a rock-bound coast." She runs to her father : 



" But the father answered never a word, 

 A frozen corpse was he." 



The ship drifts into the breakers and on the cruel rocks. 



" At daybreak, on the bleak sea beach, 



A fisherman stood aghast, 

 To see the form of a maiden fair 

 Lashed close to a drifting mast. 



" The salt sea was frozen on her breast, 



The salt tears in her eyes ; 

 And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed, 

 On the billows fall and rise. 



" Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, 



In the midnight and the snow ; 

 Christ save us all from a death like this, 

 On the reef of Xorman's Woe ! " 



* The reader not familiar with the poetical works of this authoress is recommended to peruse " 'Tis a Wild 

 Night at Sea " and " The " Rover's Death." 



