The poetical works of Matthew Arnold/S. S. "Lusitania"

by Matthew Arnold

S. S. "LUSITANIA."

Nineteenth Century, No. XXIII., January, 1879.

I read in Dante how that horned light,
Which hid Ulysses, waved itself and said:
"Following the sun, we set our vessel's head
To the great main; pass'd Seville on the right

"And Ceuta on the left; then southward sped.
And last in air, far off, dim rose a Height.
We cheer'd; but from it rush'd a blast of might,
And struck—and o'er us the sea-waters spread."

I dropp'd the book, and of my child I thought
In his long black ship speeding night and day
O'er those same seas; dark Teneriffe rose, fraught

With omen; "Oh! were that Mount pass'd," I say.
Then the door opens and this card is brought:
"Reach'd Cape Verde Islands, 'Lusitania.'"