| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Ballad of the Boat |
| | | Richard Garnett (1835–1906) |
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| THE STREAM was smooth as glass, we said: “Arise and let’s away;” | |
| The Siren sang beside the boat that in the rushes lay; | |
| And spread the sail, and strong the oar, we gaily took our way. | |
| When shall the sandy bar be cross’d? When shall we find the bay? | |
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| The broadening flood swells slowly out o’er cattle-dotted plains, | 5 |
| The stream is strong and turbulent, and dark with heavy rains, | |
| The laborer looks up to see our shallop speed away. | |
| When shall the sandy bar be cross’d? When shall we find the bay? | |
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| Now are the clouds like fiery shrouds; the sun, superbly large, | |
| Slow as an oak to woodman’s stroke sinks flaming at their marge. | 10 |
| The waves are bright with mirror’d light as jacinths on our way. | |
| When shall the sandy bar be cross’d? When shall we find the bay? | |
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| The moon is high up in the sky, and now no more we see | |
| The spreading river’s either bank, and surging distantly | |
| There booms a sullen thunder as of breakers far away. | 15 |
| Now shall the sandy bar be cross’d, now shall we find the bay! | |
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| The seagull shrieks high overhead, and dimly to our sight | |
| The moonlit crests of foaming waves gleam towering through the night. | |
| We ’ll steal upon the mermaid soon, and start her from her lay, | |
| When once the sandy bar is cross’d, and we are in the bay. | 20 |
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| What rises white and awful as a shroud enfolded ghost? | |
| What roar of rampant tumult bursts in clangor on the coast? | |
| Pull back! pull back! The raging flood sweeps every oar away. | |
| O stream, is this thy bar of sand? O boat, is this the bay? | |
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