Page:Poems Cook.djvu/335

A gentle smile lights up his face,
 And then he turns to gaze around;
For he has come to choose the place
 Where he shall sleep in hallow'd ground:
"Just by yon daisy patch," saith he,
"'Tis there, 'tis there, I'd have it be."

The bridal hearts in triumph glow,
 With all the world before them yet;
The old man's pulse beats calm and slow,
 Like sun rays, lengthening as they set.
They see the fancied hours to come;
 He sees the real days gone by:
They deem the earth a fairy home;
 He thinks it well that man should die.
Oh goodly sight—it should be so—
Youth glad to stay—age fit to go!

 

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THE DECK OF THE "OUTWARD BOUND."

How seldom we dream of the mariners' graves,
 Far down by the coral strand;
How little we think of the winds and the waves,
 When all we love are on land.
The hurricane comes and the hurricane goes,
 And little the heed we take;
Though the tree may snap as the tempest blows,
 And the walls of our homestead shake.
But the north-east gale tells a different tale,
 With a voice of fearful sound;
When a loved one is under a close-reef'd sail,
 On the deck of an "outward bound."

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