| |
| A STARTLING sound by night was heard, | |
| From the Scheveningen coast; | |
| Like vultures in their clamorous flight, | |
| Or the trampling of a host. | |
| |
| It broke the sleepers’ heavy rest, | 5 |
| With harsh and threatening cry; | |
| Storm was upon the lonely sea! | |
| Storm on the midnight sky! | |
| |
| The slumberers started up from sleep, | |
| Like spectres from their graves; | 10 |
| Then—burst a hundred voices forth: | |
| “The waves!—the waves!—the waves!” | |
| |
| The strong-built dikes lay overthrown: | |
| And on their deadly way, | |
| Like lions, came the mighty seas, | 15 |
| Impatient for their prey! | |
| |
| Like lions came the mighty seas,— | |
| O, vision of despair!— | |
| Mid ruins of their falling homes, | |
| The blackness of the air. | 20 |
| |
| Jesu! it was a fearful hour! | |
| The elemental strife, | |
| Howling above the shrieks of death,— | |
| The struggling groans for life! | |
| |
| Fathers beheld the hastening doom | 25 |
| With stern, delirious eye; | |
| Wildly they looked around for help,— | |
| No help, alas! was nigh. | |
| |
| Mothers stood trembling with their babes, | |
| Uttering complaints, in vain; | 30 |
| No arm but the Almighty arm | |
| Might stem that dreadful main! | |
| |
| No mercy, no relapse, no hope,— | |
| That night the tempest-tost | |
| Saw their paternal homes engulfed,— | 35 |
| Lost! O, forever lost! | |
| |
| Again the blessed morning light | |
| In the far heavens shone; | |
| But where the pleasant village stood, | |
| Swept the dark floods alone! | 40 |
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