SELKIRK'S LIBERTY.
Like to a sea-bird resting on her wings
Urged forward by no effort of her own,
But by the forward motion of the waves,
The vessel passed!
With folded arms he stood
Upon the wild sea-beach and watched the sails,
One after one receding from his sight,
And from his chosen home. The dark blue waves
Swept with a gentle ripple to his feet,
And passed in silence on their distant course,
As if they knew his utter helplessness,
And feeling for his coming agony—
Like to magnanimous and generous foes,
Scorned to remind him that he was alone.
The sea-bird gazed with brightly curious eye
Down from her rock-built fortress in the waves,
To see what stranger thus presumed to break
Her sea-bound solitudes; then drawing back
Her slender neck within her sheltered nest,
She seemed well satisfied to think, at least,
His was no hostile hand. The wild goat came,
Gazed for a moment on his moveless form,
Then turned away in quietness to seek
The scanty herbage growing from the rocks.
Urged forward by no effort of her own,
But by the forward motion of the waves,
The vessel passed!
With folded arms he stood
Upon the wild sea-beach and watched the sails,
One after one receding from his sight,
And from his chosen home. The dark blue waves
Swept with a gentle ripple to his feet,
And passed in silence on their distant course,
As if they knew his utter helplessness,
And feeling for his coming agony—
Like to magnanimous and generous foes,
Scorned to remind him that he was alone.
The sea-bird gazed with brightly curious eye
Down from her rock-built fortress in the waves,
To see what stranger thus presumed to break
Her sea-bound solitudes; then drawing back
Her slender neck within her sheltered nest,
She seemed well satisfied to think, at least,
His was no hostile hand. The wild goat came,
Gazed for a moment on his moveless form,
Then turned away in quietness to seek
The scanty herbage growing from the rocks.
