Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | VII. The Sea | | The Buoy-Bell | | Charles Tennyson Turner (1808–1879) |
| | | HOW like the leper, with his own sad cry | |
| Enforcing his own solitude, it tolls! | |
| That lonely bell set in the rushing shoals, | |
| To warn us from the place of jeopardy! | |
| O friend of man! sore-vexed by ocean’s power, | 5 |
| The changing tides wash o’er thee day by day; | |
| Thy trembling mouth is filled with bitter spray, | |
| Yet still thou ringest on from hour to hour; | |
| High is thy mission, though thy lot is wild— | |
| To be in danger’s realm a guardian sound; | 10 |
| In seamen’s dreams a pleasant part to bear, | |
| And earn their blessing as the year goes round, | |
| And strike the key-note of each grateful prayer, | |
| Breathed in their distant homes by wife or child! | | | | |
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