Poems (Henderson)/A Ballad of the Sea

by Elizabeth Henderson

A BALLAD OF THE SEA.

Where the great glad ocean sparkled,
 In the sunlight's golden sheen,
There a good ship lay at anchor,
 With her snowy sails a lean.
Far o'er fields, of fragrant vineyard,
 Drenched in June-time's sweetest dew,
Strolled young Jean and her boy-lover,
 Toward the western azure blue.

She to follow Henri's fortunes,
 O'er the broad and briny deep,
Left the chateau, when the midnight,
 Shadows, hushed the world to sleep.

*******

On a gray, cold Autumn morning,
 Rode the stanch ship into port,
But the faces of the seamen,
 Gave no sign of careless sport.
Each by sad, and mournful visage,
 As one by one they stepped ashore,
Told that sorrow's hand among them,
 Fell with blighting touch, and sore.

Then as gladsome friends flocked round him,
 Spoke the captain Jacques Lenore,
Two of our brave lads in ocean,
 Lie with salt waves gurgling o'er.
One, a brave, and faithful seaman,
 Jean Leclerq, from Bordeaux town,
From the mast-head's height was swept.
 By the fierceness of the storm.

And his brave and gallant ship-mate,
 In the shock of sudden grief:
O'er the ship's side, bounded wildly,
 To his loved one's, vain relief.
And the hungry waves dashed o'er them,
 Neither boat nor rope could reach.
And in coral caverns darkling,
 There they lie, hands clasped in each.

When one day we chanced to open,
 Our dead comrade's oaken chest,
There we found the sweet girl-letters,
 To the lad, that she loved best;
Then we knew our bravest seaman,
 Was a woman, young and fair,
For when Love holds woman captive,
 Every danger she will dare.