<h2><SPAN name="A_SON_OF_THE_SEA" id="A_SON_OF_THE_SEA"></SPAN>A SON OF THE SEA</h2>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<div>I was born for deep-sea faring;</div>
<div>I was bred to put to sea;</div>
<div>Stories of my father's daring</div>
<div>Filled me at my mother's knee.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>I was sired among the surges;</div>
<div>I was cubbed beside the foam;</div>
<div>All my heart is in its verges,</div>
<div>And the sea wind is my home.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>All my boyhood, from far vernal</div>
<div>Bourns of being, came to me</div>
<div>Dream-like, plangent, and eternal</div>
<div>Memories of the plunging sea.</div>
</div></div>
<hr />
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="THE_GRAVEDIGGER" id="THE_GRAVEDIGGER"></SPAN>THE GRAVEDIGGER</h2>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<div>Oh, the shambling sea is a sexton old,</div>
<div>And well his work is done.</div>
<div>With an equal grave for lord and knave,</div>
<div>He buries them every one.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Then hoy and rip, with a rolling hip,</div>
<div>He makes for the nearest shore;</div>
<div>And God, who sent him a thousand ship,</div>
<div>Will send him a thousand more;</div>
<div>But some he'll save for a bleaching grave,</div>
<div>And shoulder them in to shore,—</div>
<div>Shoulder them in, shoulder them in,</div>
<div>Shoulder them in to shore.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Oh, the ships of Greece and the ships of Tyre</div>
<div>Went out, and where are they?</div>
<div>In the port they made, they are delayed</div>
<div>With the ships of yesterday.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>He followed the ships of England far,</div>
<div>As the ships of long ago;</div>
<div>And the ships of France they led him a dance,</div>
<div>But he laid them all arow.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Oh, a loafing, idle lubber to him</div>
<div>Is the sexton of the town;</div>
<div>For sure and swift, with a guiding lift,</div>
<div>He shovels the dead men down.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>But though he delves so fierce and grim,</div>
<div>His honest graves are wide,</div>
<div>As well they know who sleep below</div>
<div>The dredge of the deepest tide.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Oh, he works with a rollicking stave at lip,</div>
<div>And loud is the chorus skirled;</div>
<div>With the burly rote of his rumbling throat</div>
<div>He batters it down the world.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>He learned it once in his father's house,</div>
<div>Where the ballads of eld were sung;</div>
<div>And merry enough is the burden rough,</div>
<div>But no man knows the tongue.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Oh, fair, they say, was his bride to see,</div>
<div>And wilful she must have been,</div>
<div>That she could bide at his gruesome side</div>
<div>When the first red dawn came in.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>And sweet, they say, is her kiss to those</div>
<div>She greets to his border home;</div>
<div>And softer than sleep her hand's first sweep</div>
<div>That beckons, and they come.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Oh, crooked is he, but strong enough</div>
<div>To handle the tallest mast;</div>
<div>From the royal barque to the slaver dark,</div>
<div>He buries them all at last.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Then hoy and rip, with a rolling hip,</div>
<div>He makes for the nearest shore;</div>
<div>And God, who sent him a thousand ship,</div>
<div>Will send him a thousand more;</div>
<div>But some he'll save for a bleaching grave,</div>
<div>And shoulder them in to shore,—</div>
<div>Shoulder them in, shoulder them in,</div>
<div>Shoulder them in to shore.</div>
</div></div>
<hr />
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="THE_YULE_GUEST" id="THE_YULE_GUEST"></SPAN>THE YULE GUEST</h2>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<div>And Yanna by the yule log</div>
<div>Sat in the empty hall,</div>
<div>And watched the goblin firelight</div>
<div>Caper upon the wall:</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>The goblins of the hearthstone,</div>
<div>Who teach the wind to sing,</div>
<div>Who dance the frozen yule away</div>
<div>And usher back the spring;</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>The goblins of the Northland,</div>
<div>Who teach the gulls to scream,</div>
<div>Who dance the autumn into dust,</div>
<div>The ages into dream.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Like the tall corn was Yanna,</div>
<div>Bending and smooth and fair,—</div>
<div>His Yanna of the sea-gray eyes</div>
<div>And harvest-yellow hair.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Child of the low-voiced people</div>
<div>Who dwell among the hills,</div>
<div>She had the lonely calm and poise</div>
<div>Of life that waits and wills.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Only to-night a little</div>
<div>With grave regard she smiled,</div>
<div>Remembering the morn she woke</div>
<div>And ceased to be a child.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Outside, the ghostly rampikes,</div>
<div>Those armies of the moon,</div>
<div>Stood while the ranks of stars drew on</div>
<div>To that more spacious noon,—</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>While over them in silence</div>
<div>Waved on the dusk afar</div>
<div>The gold flags of the Northern light</div>
<div>Streaming with ancient war.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>And when below the headland</div>
<div>The riders of the foam</div>
<div>Up from the misty border rode</div>
<div>The wild gray horses home,</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>And woke the wintry mountains</div>
<div>With thunder on the shore,</div>
<div>Out of the night there came a weird</div>
<div>And cried at Yanna's door.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Yanna, Adrianna,</div>
<div>They buried me away</div>
<div>In the blue fathoms of the deep,</div>
<div>Beyond the outer bay.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>"But in the yule, O Yanna,</div>
<div>Up from the round dim sea</div>
<div>And reeling dungeons of the fog,</div>
<div>I am come back to thee!"</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>The wind slept in the forest,</div>
<div>The moon was white and high,</div>
<div>Only the shifting snow awoke</div>
<div>To hear the yule guest cry.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Yanna, Yanna, Yanna,</div>
<div>Be quick and let me in!</div>
<div>For bitter is the trackless way</div>
<div>And far that I have been!"</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Then Yanna by the yule log</div>
<div>Starts from her dream to hear</div>
<div>A voice that bids her brooding heart</div>
<div>Shudder with joy and fear.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>The wind is up a moment</div>
<div>And whistles at the eaves,</div>
<div>And in his troubled iron dream</div>
<div>The ocean moans and heaves.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>She trembles at the door-lock</div>
<div>That he is come again,</div>
<div>And frees the wooden bolt for one</div>
<div>No barrier could detain.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Garvin, bonny Garvin,</div>
<div>So late, so late you come!"</div>
<div>The yule log crumbles down and throws</div>
<div>Strange figures on the gloom;</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>But in the moonlight pouring</div>
<div>Through the half-open door</div>
<div>Stands the gray guest of yule and casts</div>
<div>No shadow on the floor.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>The change that is upon him</div>
<div>She knows not in her haste;</div>
<div>About him her strong arms with glad</div>
<div>Impetuous tears are laced.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>She's led him to the fireside,</div>
<div>And set the wide oak chair,</div>
<div>And with her warm hands brushed away</div>
<div>The sea-rime from his hair.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Garvin, I have waited,—</div>
<div>Have watched the red sun sink,</div>
<div>And clouds of sail come flocking in</div>
<div>Over the world's gray brink,</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"With stories of encounter</div>
<div>On plank and mast and spar;</div>
<div>But never the brave barque I launched</div>
<div>And waved across the bar.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>"How come you so unsignalled,</div>
<div>When I have watched so well?</div>
<div>Where rides the Adrianna</div>
<div>With my name on boat and bell?"</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Yanna, golden Yanna,</div>
<div>The Adrianna lies</div>
<div>With the sea dredging through her ports,</div>
<div>The white sand through her eyes.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"And strange unearthly creatures</div>
<div>Make marvel of her hull,</div>
<div>Where far below the gulfs of storm</div>
<div>There is eternal lull.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Yanna, Adrianna,</div>
<div>This midnight I am here,</div>
<div>Because one night of all my life</div>
<div>At yule tide of the year,</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>"With the stars white in heaven,</div>
<div>And peace upon the sea,</div>
<div>With all my world in your white arms</div>
<div>You gave yourself to me.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"For that one night, my Yanna,</div>
<div>Within the dying year,</div>
<div>Was it not well to love, and now</div>
<div>Can it be well to fear?"</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Garvin, there is heartache</div>
<div>In tales that are half told;</div>
<div>But ah, thy cheek is pale to-night,</div>
<div>And thy poor hands are cold!</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"Tell me the course, the voyage,</div>
<div>The ports, and the new stars;</div>
<div>Did the long rollers make green surf</div>
<div>On the white reefs and bars?"</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>"O Yanna, Adrianna,</div>
<div>Though easily I found</div>
<div>The set of those uncharted tides</div>
<div>In seas no line could sound,</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"And made without a pilot</div>
<div>The port without a light,</div>
<div>No log keeps tally of the knots</div>
<div>That I have sailed to-night.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"It fell about mid-April;</div>
<div>The Trades were holding free;</div>
<div>We drove her till the scuppers hissed</div>
<div>And buried in the lee.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div><hr class='smler' /></div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Yanna, Adrianna,</div>
<div>Loose hands and let me go!</div>
<div>The night grows red along the East,</div>
<div>And in the shifting snow</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>"I hear my shipmates calling,</div>
<div>Sent out to search for me</div>
<div>In the pale lands beneath the moon</div>
<div>Along the troubling sea."</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Garvin, bonny Garvin,</div>
<div>What is the booming sound</div>
<div>Of canvas, and the piping shrill,</div>
<div>As when a ship comes round?"</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"It is the shadow boatswain</div>
<div>Piping his hands to bend</div>
<div>The looming sails on giant yards</div>
<div>Aboard the Nomansfriend.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"She sails for Sunken Harbor</div>
<div>And ports of yester year;</div>
<div>The tern are shrilling in the lift,</div>
<div>The low wind-gates are clear.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>"O Yanna, Adrianna,</div>
<div>The little while is done.</div>
<div>Thou wilt behold the brightening sea</div>
<div>Freshen before the sun,</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"And many a morning redden</div>
<div>The dark hill slopes of pine;</div>
<div>But I must sail hull-down to-night</div>
<div>Below the gray sea-line.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"I shall not hear the snowbirds</div>
<div>Their morning litany,</div>
<div>For when the dawn comes over dale</div>
<div>I must put out to sea."</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Garvin, bonny Garvin,</div>
<div>To have thee as I will,</div>
<div>I would that never more on earth</div>
<div>The dawn came over hill."</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div><hr class='smler' /></div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Then on the snowy pillow,</div>
<div>Her hair about her face,</div>
<div>He laid her in the quiet room,</div>
<div>And wiped away all trace</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Of tears from the poor eyelids</div>
<div>That were so sad for him,</div>
<div>And soothed her into sleep at last</div>
<div>As the great stars grew dim.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Tender as April twilight</div>
<div>He sang, and the song grew</div>
<div>Vague as the dreams which roam about</div>
<div>This world of dust and dew:</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Yanna, Adrianna,</div>
<div>Dear Love, look forth to sea</div>
<div>And all year long until the yule,</div>
<div>Dear Heart, keep watch for me!</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>"O Yanna, Adrianna,</div>
<div>I hear the calling sea,</div>
<div>And the folk telling tales among</div>
<div>The hills where I would be.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Yanna, Adrianna,</div>
<div>Over the hills of sea</div>
<div>The wind calls and the morning comes,</div>
<div>And I must forth from thee.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"But Yanna, Adrianna,</div>
<div>Keep watch above the sea;</div>
<div>And when the weary time is o'er,</div>
<div>Dear Life, come back to me!"</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Garvin, bonny Garvin—"</div>
<div>She murmurs in her dream,</div>
<div>And smiles a moment in her sleep</div>
<div>To hear the white gulls scream.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Then with the storm foreboding</div>
<div>Far in the dim gray South,</div>
<div>He kissed her not upon the cheek</div>
<div>Nor on the burning mouth,</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>But once above the forehead</div>
<div>Before he turned away;</div>
<div>And ere the morning light stole in,</div>
<div>That golden lock was gray.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>"O Yanna, Adrianna—"</div>
<div>The wind moans to the sea;</div>
<div>And down the sluices of the dawn</div>
<div>A shadow drifts alee.</div>
</div></div>
<hr />
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="THE_MARRING_OF_MALYN" id="THE_MARRING_OF_MALYN"></SPAN>THE MARRING OF MALYN</h2>
<h3>I</h3>
<h3>THE MERRYMAKERS</h3>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<div>Among the wintry mountains beside the Northern sea</div>
<div>There is a merrymaking, as old as old can be.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Over the river reaches, over the wastes of snow,</div>
<div>Halting at every doorway, the white drifts come and go.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>They scour upon the open, and mass along the wood,</div>
<div>The burliest invaders that ever man withstood.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>With swoop and whirl and scurry, these riders of the drift</div>
<div>Will mount and wheel and column, and pass into the lift.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>All night upon the marshes you hear their tread go by,</div>
<div>And all night long the streamers are dancing on the sky.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Their light in Malyn's chamber is pale upon the floor,</div>
<div>And Malyn of the mountains is theirs for evermore.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>She fancies them a people in saffron and in green,</div>
<div>Dancing for her. For Malyn is only seventeen.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Out there beyond her window, from frosty deep to deep,</div>
<div>Her heart is dancing with them until she falls asleep.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Then all night long through heaven, with stately to and fro,</div>
<div>To music of no measure, the gorgeous dancers go.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>The stars are great and splendid, beryl and gold and blue,</div>
<div>And there are dreams for Malyn that never will come true.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Yet for one golden Yule-tide their royal guest is she,</div>
<div>Among the wintry mountains beside the Northern sea.</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></SPAN></span></p>
<h3>II</h3>
<h3>A SAILOR'S WEDDING</h3>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<div>There is a Norland laddie who sails the round sea-rim,</div>
<div>And Malyn of the mountains is all the world to him.</div>
<div>The Master of the Snowflake, bound upward from the line,</div>
<div>He smothers her with canvas along the crumbling brine.</div>
<div>He crowds her till she buries and shudders from his hand,</div>
<div>For in the angry sunset the watch has sighted land;</div>
<div>And he will brook no gainsay who goes to meet his bride.</div>
<div>But their will is the wind's will who traffic on the tide.</div>
<div>Make home, my bonny schooner! The sun goes down to light</div>
<div>The gusty crimson wind-halls against the wedding night.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>She gathers up the distance, and grows and veers and swings,</div>
<div>Like any homing swallow with nightfall in her wings.</div>
<div>The wind's white sources glimmer with shining gusts of rain;</div>
<div>And in the Ardise country the spring comes back again.</div>
<div>It is the brooding April, haunted and sad and dear,</div>
<div>When vanished things return not with the returning year.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Only, when evening purples the light in Malyn's dale,</div>
<div>With sound of brooks and robins, by many a hidden trail,</div>
<div>With stir of lulling rivers along the forest floor,</div>
<div>The dream-folk of the gloaming come back to Malyn's door.</div>
<div>The dusk is long and gracious, and far up in the sky</div>
<div>You hear the chimney-swallows twitter and scurry by.</div>
<div>The hyacinths are lonesome and white in Malyn's room;</div>
<div>And out at sea the Snowflake is driving through the gloom.</div>
<div>The whitecaps froth and freshen; in squadrons of white surge</div>
<div>They thunder on to ruin, and smoke along the verge.</div>
<div>The lift is black above them, the sea is mirk below,</div>
<div>And down the world's wide border they perish as they go.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>They comb and seethe and founder, they mount and glimmer and flee,</div>
<div>Amid the awful sobbing and quailing of the sea.</div>
<div>They sheet the flying schooner in foam from stem to stern,</div>
<div>Till every yard of canvas is drenched from clew to ear'n'.</div>
<div>And where they move uneasy, chill is the light and pale;</div>
<div>They are the Skipper's daughters, who dance before the gale.</div>
<div>They revel with the Snowflake, and down the close of day</div>
<div>Among the boisterous dancers she holds her dancing way;</div>
<div>And then the dark has kindled the harbor light alee,</div>
<div>With stars and wind and sea-room upon the gurly sea.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>The storm gets up to windward to heave and clang and brawl;</div>
<div>The dancers of the open begin to moan and call.</div>
<div>A lure is in their dancing, a weird is in their song;</div>
<div>The snow-white Skipper's daughters are stronger than the strong.</div>
<div>They love the Norland sailor who dares the rough sea play;</div>
<div>Their arms are white and splendid to beckon him away.</div>
<div>They promise him, for kisses a moment at their lips,</div>
<div>To make before the morning the port of missing ships,</div>
<div>Where men put in for shelter, and dreams put forth again,</div>
<div>And the great sea-winds follow the journey of the rain.</div>
<div>A bridal with no morrow, no welling of old tears,</div>
<div>For him, and no more tidings of the departed years!</div>
<div>For there of old were fashioned the chambers cool and dim,</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>In the eternal silence below the twilight's rim.</div>
<div>The borders of that country are slumberous and wide;</div>
<div>And they are well who marry the fondlers of the tide.</div>
<div>Within their arms immortal, no mortal fear can be;</div>
<div>But Malyn of the mountains is fairer than the sea.</div>
<div>And so the scudding Snowflake flies with the wind astern,</div>
<div>And through the boding twilight are blown the shrilling tern.</div>
<div>The light is on the headland, the harbor gate is wide;</div>
<div>But rolling in with ruin the fog is on the tide.</div>
<div>Fate like a muffled steersman sails with that Norland gloom;</div>
<div>The Snowflake in the offing is neck and neck with doom.</div>
<div>Ha, ha, my saucy cruiser, crowd up your helm and run!</div>
<div>There'll be a merrymaking to-morrow in the sun.</div>
<div>A cloud of straining canvas, a roar of breaking foam,</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>The Snowflake and the sea-drift are racing in for home.</div>
<div>Her heart is dancing shoreward, but silently and pale</div>
<div>The swift relentless phantom is hungering on her trail.</div>
<div>They scour and fly together, until across the roar</div>
<div>He signals for a pilot—and Death puts out from shore.</div>
<div>A moment Malyn's window is gleaming in the lee,</div>
<div>And then—the ghost of wreckage upon the iron sea.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Ah, Malyn, lay your forehead upon your folded arm,</div>
<div>And hear the grim marauder shake out the reefs of storm!</div>
<div>Loud laughs the surly Skipper to feel the fog drive in,</div>
<div>Because a blue-eyed sailor shall wed his kith and kin,</div>
<div>And the red dawn discover a rover spent for breath</div>
<div>Among the merrymakers who fondle him to death.</div>
<div>And all the snowy sisters are dancing wild and grand,</div>
<div>For him whose broken beauty shall slacken to their hand.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>They wanton in their triumph, and skirl at Malyn's plight;</div>
<div>Lift up their hands in chorus, and thunder to the night.</div>
<div>The gulls are driven inland; but on the dancing tide</div>
<div>The master of the Snowflake is taken to his bride.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>And there when daybreak yellows along the far sea-plain,</div>
<div>The fresh and buoyant morning comes down the wind again.</div>
<div>The world is glad of April, the gulls are wild with glee,</div>
<div>And Malyn on the headland alone looks out to sea.</div>
<div>Once more that gray Shipmaster smiles, for the night is done,</div>
<div>And all his snow-white daughters are dancing in the sun.</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></SPAN></span></p>
<h3>III</h3>
<h3>THE LIGHT ON THE MARSH</h3>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<div>The year grows on to harvest, the tawny lilies burn</div>
<div>Along the marsh, and hillward the roads are sweet with fern.</div>
<div>All day the windless heaven pavilions the sea-blue,</div>
<div>Then twilight comes and drenches the sultry dells with dew.</div>
<div>The lone white star of evening comes out among the hills,</div>
<div>And in the darkling forest begin the whip-poor-wills.</div>
<div>The fireflies that wander, the hawks that flit and scream,</div>
<div>And all the wilding vagrants of summer dusk and dream,</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Have all their will, and reck not of any after thing,</div>
<div>Inheriting no sorrow and no foreshadowing.</div>
<div>The wind forgets to whisper, the pines forget to moan,</div>
<div>And Malyn of the mountains is there among her own.</div>
<div>Malyn, whom grief nor wonder can trouble nevermore,</div>
<div>Since that spring night the Snowflake was wrecked beside her door,</div>
<div>And strange her cry went seaward once, and her soul thereon</div>
<div>With the vast lonely sea-winds, a wanderer, was gone.</div>
<div>But she, that patient beauty which is her body fair,</div>
<div>Endures on earth still lovely, untenanted of care.</div>
<div>The folk down at the harbor pity from day to day;</div>
<div>With a "God save you, Malyn!" they bid her on her way.</div>
<div>She smiles, poor feckless Malyn, the knowing smile of those</div>
<div>Whom the too sudden vision God sometimes may disclose</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Of his wild, lurid world-wreck, has blinded with its sheen.</div>
<div>Then, with a fond insistence, pathetic and serene,</div>
<div>They pass among their fellows for lost minds none can save,</div>
<div>Bent on their single business, and marvel why men rave.</div>
<div>Now far away a sighing comes from the buried reef,</div>
<div>As though the sea were mourning above an ancient grief.</div>
<div>For once the restless Mother of all the weary lands</div>
<div>Went down to him in beauty, with trouble in her hands,</div>
<div>And gave to him forever all memory to keep,</div>
<div>But to her wayward children oblivion and sleep,</div>
<div>That no immortal burden might plague one living thing,</div>
<div>But death should sweetly visit us vagabonds of spring.</div>
<div>And so his heart forever goes inland with the tide,</div>
<div>Searching with many voices among the marshes wide.</div>
<div>Under the quiet starlight, up through the stirring reeds,</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>With whispering and lamenting it rises and recedes.</div>
<div>All night the lapsing rivers croon to their shingly bars</div>
<div>The wizardries that mingle the sea-wind and the stars.</div>
<div>And all night long wherever the moving waters gleam,</div>
<div>The little hills hearken, hearken, the great hills hear and dream.</div>
<div>And Malyn keeps the marshes all the sweet summer night,</div>
<div>Alone, foot-free, to follow a wandering wisp-light.</div>
<div>For every day at sundown, at the first beacon's gleam,</div>
<div>She calls the gulls her brothers and keeps a tryst with them.</div>
<div>"O gulls, white gulls, what see you beyond the sloping blue?</div>
<div>And where away's the Snowflake, she's so long overdue?"</div>
<div>Then, as the gloaming settles, the hilltop stars emerge</div>
<div>And watch that plaintive figure patrol the dark sea verge.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>She follows the marsh fire; her heart laughs and is glad;</div>
<div>She knows that light to seaward is her own sailor lad!</div>
<div>What are these tales they tell her of wreckage on the shore?</div>
<div>Delay but makes his coming the nearer than before!</div>
<div>Surely her eyes have sighted his schooner in the lift!</div>
<div>But the great tide he homes on sets with an outward drift.</div>
<div>So will-o'-the-wisp deludes her till dawn, and she turns home</div>
<div>In unperturbed assurance, "To-morrow he will come."</div>
<div>This is the tale of Malyn, whom sudden grief so marred.</div>
<div>And still each lovely summer resumes that sweet regard,—</div>
<div>The old unvexed eternal indifference to pain;</div>
<div>The sea sings in the marshes, and June comes back again.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>All night the lapsing rivers lisp in the long dike grass,</div>
<div>And many memories whisper the sea-winds as they pass;</div>
<div>The tides disturb the silence; but not a hindrance bars</div>
<div>The wash of time, where founder even the galleon stars.</div>
<div>And all night long wherever the moving waters gleam,</div>
<div>The little hills hearken, hearken, the great hills hear and dream.</div>
</div></div>
<hr />
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="THE_NANCYS_PRIDE" id="THE_NANCYS_PRIDE"></SPAN>THE NANCY'S PRIDE</h2>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<div>On the long slow heave of a lazy sea,</div>
<div>To the flap of an idle sail,</div>
<div>The Nancy's Pride went out on the tide;</div>
<div>And the skipper stood by the rail.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>All down, all down by the sleepy town,</div>
<div>With the hollyhocks a-row</div>
<div>In the little poppy gardens,</div>
<div>The sea had her in tow.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>They let her slip by the breathing rip,</div>
<div>Where the bell is never still,</div>
<div>And over the sounding harbor bar,</div>
<div>And under the harbor hill.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>She melted into the dreaming noon,</div>
<div>Out of the drowsy land,</div>
<div>In sight of a flag of goldy hair,</div>
<div>To the kiss of a girlish hand.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>For the lass who hailed the lad who sailed,</div>
<div>Was—who but his April bride?</div>
<div>And of all the fleet of Grand Latite,</div>
<div>Her pride was the Nancy's Pride.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>So the little vessel faded down</div>
<div>With her creaking boom a-swing,</div>
<div>Till a wind from the deep came up with a creep,</div>
<div>And caught her wing and wing.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>She made for the lost horizon line,</div>
<div>Where the clouds a-castled lay,</div>
<div>While the boil and seethe of the open sea</div>
<div>Hung on her frothing way.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>She lifted her hull like a breasting gull</div>
<div>Where the rolling valleys be,</div>
<div>And dipped where the shining porpoises</div>
<div>Put ploughshares through the sea.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>A fading sail on the far sea-line,</div>
<div>About the turn of the tide,</div>
<div>As she made for the Banks on her maiden cruise,</div>
<div>Was the last of the Nancy's Pride.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>To-day a boy with goldy hair,</div>
<div>In a garden of Grand Latite,</div>
<div>From his mother's knee looks out to sea</div>
<div>For the coming of the fleet.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>They all may home on a sleepy tide,</div>
<div>To the flap of the idle sail;</div>
<div>But it's never again the Nancy's Pride</div>
<div>That answers a human hail.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>They all may home on a sleepy tide</div>
<div>To the sag of an idle sheet;</div>
<div>But it's never again the Nancy's Pride</div>
<div>That draws men down the street.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>On the Banks to-night a fearsome sight</div>
<div>The fishermen behold,</div>
<div>Keeping the ghost watch in the moon</div>
<div>When the small hours are cold.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>When the light wind veers, and the white fog clears,</div>
<div>They see by the after rail</div>
<div>An unknown schooner creeping up</div>
<div>With mildewed spar and sail.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Her crew lean forth by the rotting shrouds,</div>
<div>With the Judgment in their face;</div>
<div>And to their mates' "God save you!"</div>
<div>Have never a word of grace.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Then into the gray they sheer away,</div>
<div>On the awful polar tide;</div>
<div>And the sailors know they have seen the wraith</div>
<div>Of the missing Nancy's Pride.</div>
</div></div>
<hr />
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></SPAN></span></p>
<h2><SPAN name="ARNOLD_MASTER_OF_THE_SCUD" id="ARNOLD_MASTER_OF_THE_SCUD"></SPAN>ARNOLD, MASTER OF THE SCUD</h2>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<div>There's a schooner out from Kingsport,</div>
<div>Through the morning's dazzle-gleam,</div>
<div>Snoring down the Bay of Fundy</div>
<div>With a norther on her beam.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>How the tough wind springs to wrestle,</div>
<div>When the tide is on the flood!</div>
<div>And between them stands young daring—</div>
<div>Arnold, master of the Scud.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>He is only "Martin's youngster,"</div>
<div>To the Minas coasting fleet,</div>
<div>"Twelve year old, and full of Satan</div>
<div>As a nut is full of meat."</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>With a wake of froth behind him,</div>
<div>And the gold green waste before,</div>
<div>Just as though the sea this morning</div>
<div>Were his boat pond by the door,</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Legs a-straddle, grips the tiller</div>
<div>This young waif of the old sea;</div>
<div>When the wind comes harder, only</div>
<div>Laughs "Hurrah!" and holds her free.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Little wonder, as you watch him</div>
<div>With the dash in his blue eye,</div>
<div>Long ago his father called him</div>
<div>"Arnold, Master," on the sly,</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>While his mother's heart foreboded</div>
<div>Reckless father makes rash son.</div>
<div>So to-day the schooner carries</div>
<div>Just these two whose will is one.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Now the wind grows moody, shifting</div>
<div>Point by point into the east.</div>
<div>Wing and wing the Scud is flying</div>
<div>With her scuppers full of yeast.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>And the father's older wisdom</div>
<div>On the sea-line has descried,</div>
<div>Like a stealthy cloud-bank making</div>
<div>Up to windward with the tide,</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Those tall navies of disaster,</div>
<div>The pale squadrons of the fog,</div>
<div>That maraud this gray world border</div>
<div>Without pilot, chart, or log,</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Ranging wanton as marooners</div>
<div>From Minudie to Manan.</div>
<div>"Heave to, and we'll reef, my master!"</div>
<div>Cries he; when no will of man</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Spills the foresail, but a clumsy</div>
<div>Wind-flaw with a hand like stone</div>
<div>Hurls the boom round. In an instant</div>
<div>Arnold, Master, there alone</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Sees a crushed corpse shot to seaward,</div>
<div>With the gray doom in its face;</div>
<div>And the climbing foam receives it</div>
<div>To its everlasting place.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>What does Arnold, Master, think you?</div>
<div>Whimper like a child for dread?</div>
<div>That's not Arnold. Foulest weather</div>
<div>Strongest sailors ever bred.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>And this slip of taut sea-faring</div>
<div>Grows a man who throttles fear.</div>
<div>Let the storm and dark in spite now</div>
<div>Do their worst with valor here!</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Not a reef and not a shiver,</div>
<div>While the wind jeers in her shrouds,</div>
<div>And the flauts of foam and sea-fog</div>
<div>Swarm upon her deck in crowds,</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Flies the Scud like a mad racer;</div>
<div>And with iron in his frown,</div>
<div>Holding hard by wrath and dreadnought,</div>
<div>Arnold, Master, rides her down.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Let the taffrail shriek through foam-heads!</div>
<div>Let the licking seas go glut</div>
<div>Elsewhere their old hunger, baffled!</div>
<div>Arnold's making for the Gut.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Cleft sheer down, the sea-wall mountains</div>
<div>Give that one port on the coast;</div>
<div>Made, the Basin lies in sunshine!</div>
<div>Missed, the little Scud is lost!</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>Come now, fog-horn, let your warning</div>
<div>Rip the wind to starboard there!</div>
<div>Suddenly that burly-throated</div>
<div>Welcome ploughs the cumbered air.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>The young master hauls a little,</div>
<div>Crowds her up and sheets her home,</div>
<div>Heading for the narrow entry</div>
<div>Whence the safety signals come.</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Then the wind lulls, and an eddy</div>
<div>Tells of ledges, where away;</div>
<div>Veers the Scud, sheet free, sun breaking,</div>
<div>Through the rifts, and—there's the bay!</div>
</div><div class="stanza">
<div>Like a bird in from the storm-beat,</div>
<div>As the summer sun goes down,</div>
<div>Slows the schooner to her moorings</div>
<div>By the wharf at Digby town.</div>
</div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="stanza">
<div>All the world next morning wondered.</div>
<div>Largest letters, there it stood,</div>
<div>"Storm in Fundy. A Boy's Daring.</div>
<div>Arnold, Master of the Scud."</div>
</div></div>
<hr />
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></SPAN></span></p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />