For I can weather the roughest gale He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat He cut a rope from a broken spar, And bound her to the mast. "O father! I hear the church-bells ring, ""Tis a fog-bell, on a rock-bound coast!" And he steered for the open sea. "O father! I hear the sound of guns, what may it be?" O say, "Some ship in distress, that cannot live In such an angry sea!" But the father answered never a word, A frozen corpse was he. Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark, With his face turned to the skies, The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow On his fixed and glassy eyes. Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed That saved she might be; And she thought of Christ, who stilled the waves On the Lake of Galilee. 22 THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS And fast through the midnight dark and drear, And ever the fitful gusts between The breakers were right beneath her bows, And a whooping billow swept the crew She struck where the white and fleecy waves But the cruel rocks, they gored her sides Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice, At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach Lashed close to a drifting mast. The salt sea was frozen on her breast, LULLABY SWEET and low, sweet and low, Wind of the western sea, Low, low, breathe and blow, Wind of the western sea! Over the rolling waters go, Come from the dying moon, and blow, Blow him again to me; While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps. Sleep and rest, sleep and rest, Rest, rest, on mother's breast, Father will come to thee soon; Father will come to his babe in the nest, Silver sails all out of the west Under the silver moon: Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep. Alfred Tennyson. ANNAN WATER ANNAN Water 's wading deep, And my Love Annie's wondrous bonny; And I am loath she should wet her feet, Because I love her best of ony. He's loupen on his bonny gray, He rode the right gate and the ready; |