Lines Written at Spithead. George Croly (1780-1860). Spithead. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. England: Vols. I-IV

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.

Spithead

Lines Written at Spithead

George Croly (1780–1860)


HARK to the knell!
It comes on the swell
Of the stormy ocean wave;
’T is no earthly sound,
But a tale profound	5
From the mariner’s deep-sea grave.

When the billows dash,
And the signals flash,
And the thunder is on the gale;
And the ocean is white	10
With its own wild light,
Deadly and dismal and pale.

When the lightning’s blaze
Smites the seaman’s gaze,
And the sea rolls in fire and in foam;	15
And the surge’s roar
Shakes the rocky shore,
We hear the sea-knell come.

There ’neath the billow,
The sand their pillow,	20
Ten thousand men lie low;
And still their dirge
Is sung by the surge,
When the stormy night-winds blow.

Sleep, warriors! sleep	25
On your pillow deep
In peace! for no mortal care,
No art can deceive,
No anguish can heave,
The heart that once slumbers there.	30