HERE is the breath of the sea, | |
| And here sounds the boom of the wave, | |
| The crash of the surf on the beach, | |
| For ever, eternally; | |
| And here, through the elements’ reach, | 5 |
| The lightning, the storm, and the spume, | |
| Comes the cry of the seamen who gave | |
| Their bones to the surges to bleach, | |
| Their souls to a billowy doom. | |
| |
| What of grey dangers afar | 10 |
| In spaces uncharted, untrod? | |
| What though the heav’ns are a-change, | |
| And engulphed is the Cynosure-star? | |
| What though the sun has grown strange, | |
| And the deep has become molten brass? | 15 |
| At their peak flies the Cross of their God | |
| And, wherever their rudders may range, | |
| ’Tis His voice in the tempests that pass. | |
| |
| Never rolled breaker so high, | |
| Their courage rose not with its swell; | 20 |
| Never roared thunder so loud, | |
| Their shouting fell short of the sky; | |
| Never was mortal so proud, | |
| They brought not his pride to despair! | |
| How they dared, how they fought, how they fell! | 25 |
| And the Lords of the Earth, how they bowed | |
| To these Lords of the Sea and the Air! | |
| |
| Fathers of Nations ride here, | |
| Their sails breasted out by the breeze, | |
| Their battle-flags bright in the sun. | 30 |
| At their bidding vast regions appear | |
| To witness the race they have run. | |
| Woe to the foemen who seek | |
| To stay their march over the seas! | |
| How gallant the victories won— | 35 |
| And how mighty the message they speak! | |
| |
| Here, from the page of a priest, | |
| The friend of these sailors of old, | |
| May be heard the reverberant cheer | |
| That the centuries have but increased | 40 |
| Till it comes like a blast to the ear. | |
| Rest they well, these invincible dead, | |
| Ships’ captains and companies bold, | |
| For the ocean itself is their bier, | |
| And the continents stones at their head. | 45 |
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