VARIOUS POEMS
And to hide the ocean wide,
And to wrap us in a pall!
Beneath its folds we past:
Hidden were shroud and mast,
And faces, in near places
Side by side.
Sudden there also fell
A summons like a knell:
Every ear the words could hear,—
Whence spoken, who could tell?
"What ship is this? where bound?"
Gods, what a dismal sound!
A stranger, and in danger,
Sailing near.
"The Virginia, on her route
From the Mersey, seven days out;
Fore and aft, our trusty craft
Carries a thousand souls, about."
"All these souls may travel still,
Westward bound, if so they will;
Bodies rather, I would gather!"
Loud he laughed.
"Who is 't that hails so rude,
And for what this idle mood?
Words like these, on midnight seas,
Bode no friend nor fortune good!"
"Care not to know my name,
But whence I lastly came,
At leisure, for my pleasure,
Ask the breeze.
"To the people of your port
Bear a message of this sort:
Say, I haste unto the West,
A sharer of their sport.
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