The Wreck

All night the booming minute-gunHad peal’d along the deep,And mournfully the rising sunLook’d o’er the tide-worn steep.A bark from India’s coral strand,Before the raging blast,Had vail’d her topsails to the sand,And bow’d her noble mast.

The queenly ship!--brave hearts had striven,And true ones died with her!We saw her mighty cable riven,Like floating gossamer.We saw her proud flag struck that morn--A star once o’er the seas,--Her anchor gone, her deck uptorn,And sadder things than these!

We saw her treasures cast away,The rocks with pearls were sown;And, strangely sad, the ruby’s rayFlash’d out o’er fretted stone.And gold was strewn the wet sands o’er,Like ashes by a breeze;And gorgeous robes--but oh! that shoreHad sadder things than these!

We saw the strong man still and low,A crush’d reed thrown aside;Yet, by that rigid lip and brow,Not without strife he died.And near him on the sea-weed lay--Till then we had not wept--But well our gushing hearts might say,That there a mother slept!

For her pale arms a babe had press’dWith such a wreathing grasp,Billows had dash’d o’er that fond breast,Yet not undone the clasp.Her very tresses had been flungTo wrap the fair child’s form,Where still their wet long streamers hungAll tangled by the storm.

And beautiful, midst that wild scene,Gleam’d up the boy’s dead face,Like slumber’s, trustingly serene,In melancholy grace.Deep in her bosom lay his head,With half-shut violet-eye--He had known little of her dread,Naught of her agony!

O human love! whose yearning heart,Through all things vainly true,So stamps upon thy mortal partIts passionate adieu--Surely thou hast another lot:There is some home for thee,Where thou shalt rest, remembering notThe moaning of the sea!