Page:Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems (1873).djvu/185

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN.
181

Ere darkness fell, beneath the wave had sunk the distant town.
No more, no more, ye hapless crew, shall Holland meet your eye.
In lingering hope and keen suspense, maid, wife, and child shall die!

Away, away the vessel speeds, till sea and sky alone
Are round her, as her course she steers across the torrid zone.
Away, until the North Star fades, the Southern Cross is high,
And myriad gems of brightest beam are sparkling in the sky.
The tropic winds are left behind; she nears the Cape of Storms,
Where awful Tempest ever sits enthroned in wild alarms;
Where Ocean in his anger shakes aloft his foamy crest.
Disdainful of the weakly toys that ride upon his breast.