I.
It was eve,—at anchor riding
Stately ships were lulled to rest;
And the burnished sun was gliding
Down the golden pillared west.
On a floral beach where madly
Lashed old ocean’s foaming tide,
In half-broken accents sadly
Mourned the sailor’s lonely bride:
II.
“Oh, ye winds on restless pinion,
Hovering o’er the dusky deep,
Tell me in what lone dominion
Does my sailor lover sleep?
Down beneath the rolling ocean,
Where the twining corals grow,
’Neath the wild wave’s ceaseless motion
Does he slumber cold and low?
III.
“Now perchance the night winds blowing
On a shore all wild and drear,
Wave the tomb weeds o’er him growing
Undisturbed for many a year.
Oh! to me how sad and lonely
Seems the course of life for’er,
Haunted by vague memories only,
Which like ghosts yet linger near.
IV.
“Years have fled since last we parted
On that most memorial night,
When in sadness, broken hearted,
Turned I to the moon’s wan light;
There some vague ghost seemed to linger,
With a tale too sad to tell,
And with lifted palsied finger,
Seemed to sigh, ‘Farewell! farewell!’
V.
“Well I knew it was a token
From death’s dim and shadowy sphere,
And hope’s golden cup fell broken,
Dewed with many a falling tear.
Every bud of joy and gladness,
Every flower that love had fed,—
All in memory’s urn of sadness,
Mingled with the withered dead.”
VI.
While she spoke the tears of twilight
Fell upon the dying day,
And the murky, misty skylight
On the slumbering ocean lay:
And the winds the lone beach sweeping,
Bore no tidings to her ear;—
Till beside the maiden weeping
Stood her sailor lover dear.