Long ago, In the deer-haunted forests of Maine, Lay the snow, They fell, those lordly pines! Those grand, majestic pines! 'Mid shouts and cheers The jaded steers, Panting beneath the goad, Dragged down the weary, winding road To feel the stress and the strain Of the wind and the reeling main Whose roar Would remind them forevermore 230 Of their native forests they should not see again. And everywhere The slender, grateful spars Poise aloft in the air, And at the mast-head, White, blue, and red, A flag unrolls the stripes and stars. 240 Ah! when the wanderer, lonely, friendless, In foreign harbors shall behold That flag unrolled, 'T will be as a friendly hand Stretched out from his native land, Filling his heart with memories sweet and endless! 250 All is finished! and at length Has come the bridal day Of beauty and of strength. To-day the vessel shall be launched! Slowly, in all his splendors dight, The great sun rises to behold the sight. The ocean old, Centuries old, Strong as youth, and as uncontrolled, Up and down the sands of gold. His beating heart is not at rest; And far and wide, With ceaseless flow, His beard of snow Heaves with the heaving of his breast. He waits impatient for his bride. With her foot upon the sands, Decked with flags and streamers gay, 260 270 280 Her snow-white signals fluttering, blending, Round her like a veil descending, Ready to be The bride of the gray old sea. On the deck another bride Is standing by her lover's side. Like the shadows cast by clouds, Broken by many a sunny fleck, The prayer is said, The service read, The joyous bridegroom bows his head; Down his own the tears begin to run. The shepherd of that wandering flock, Of the sailor's heart, All its pleasures and its griefs, course. Therefore he spake, and thus said he :"Like unto ships far off at sea, Outward or homeward bound, are we. 290 300 310 Before, behind, and all around, Floats and swings the horizon's bound, And climb the crystal wall of the skies, As if we could slide from its outer brink. It is not the sea that sinks and shelves, That rock and rise With endless and uneasy motion, Now sinking into the depths of ocean. 320 330 To the toil and the task we have to do, Then the Master, With a gesture of command, Waved his hand; And at the word, Loud and sudden there was heard, All around them and below, The sound of hammers, blow on blow, 340 She starts, she moves,-she seems to feel And, spurning with her foot the ground, And lo! from the assembled crowd How beautiful she is! How fair She lies within those arms, that press Of tenderness and watchful care! 350 360 Through wind and wave, right onward steer! Sail forth into the sea of life, 370 |