Page:Poems for the Sea.djvu/52

                              When first our flag
Was rear'd o'er Mexico,—the land of gold,
I touch'd upon that wondrous coast, and there
Invested all my gains. So, I must go
Thither and be made rich!
                              Hear me, my wife.
'Tis but this once, and then I shall return
With wealth untold."
                              "Oh! let us be content,"
She fain had said, but saw it was in vain.
A marble paleness o'er her features stole,
And when it fled, left a fix'd purpose there
To go with him.
                              Though earnestly he strove
To paint the hardships of the sea, fierce storms,
Privations, nameless dangers, all unfit
For one so delicate; yet still the wife
Clave to her husband.
                              Mournful kindred spake
Dissuasively of peril, and the pang
Of dire sea-sickness, far away from all
Her sympathising sex; and of the life,