Landon in The Literary Gazette 1823/Floating Beacon

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Literary Gazette, 23rd August 1823, Page 540

ORIGINAL POETRY.
FRAGMENTS.
I.— THE FLOATING BEACON.

Why art thou thus, thou lonely bark,
    The last on the darkling sea?
Why are thy sails to the night-wind spread,
    And why shines that light on thee?

Why art thou here, thou lonely bark,
    When the other ships are gone?
I deemed thee away, with those to-day;
    But still thou art sailing alone.

There came a voice from the lonely bark,
    Or mine own thoughts answered to me:
Spread is my sail to the midnight gale,
    And my light shines lone on the sea;

For my watch is by the shoal and the sand,
    And the rock that is hidden by night,
And many a mariner kneels at home,
    And blesses the beacon light.

Is not my light like that holier light
    That heaven sheds over life's path,
Thought not of, prized not in stillness and shine,
    But welcomed in darkness and wrath!^[1]

---

1. Signature after third fragment