WHERE LIES THE LAND?

I was never aboard her.

Be she afloat or be she aground,
Sinking or swimming, I'll be bound,
Her owners can afford her!

I say, how's my John?"

377

How's my boy - my boy?"

SYDNEY Dobell.

W

Where lies the Land?

HERE lies the land to which the ship would go?

Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know;

And where the land she travels from? Away,
Far, far behind, is all that they can say.

On sunny noons upon the deck's smooth face,
Linked arm in arm, how pleasant here to pace!
Or, o'er the stern reclining, watch below
The foaming wake far widening as we go.

On stormy nights, when wild northwesters rave,
How proud a thing to fight with wind and wave!
The dripping sailor on the reeling mast

Exults to bear, and scorns to wish it past.

Where lies the land to which the ship would go?
Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know;
And where the land she travels from? Away,
Far, far behind, is all that they can say.

ARTHUR HUGH Clough.

Come Home.

OME home, come home! And where is home for me,

COM

Whose ship is driving o'er the trackless sea?

To the frail bark here plunging on its way,
To the wild waters, shall I turn and say,
To the plunging bark, or to the salt sea foam,
You are my home?

Fields once I walked in, faces once I knew,
Familiar things so old my heart believed them true,
These far, far back behind me lie; before

The dark clouds mutter, and-the deep seas roar,
And speak to them that 'neath and o'er them roam
No words of home.

Beyond the clouds, beyond the waves that roar,
There may indeed, or may not be, a shore,

Where fields as green, and hands and hearts as true,

The old forgotten semblance may renew,

And offer exiles driven far o'er the salt sea foam
Another home.

But toil and pain must wear out many a day,

And days bear weeks, and weeks bear months away,

Ere, if at all, the weary traveler hear,

With accents whispered in his wayworn ear,

A voice he dares to listen to, say, Come

To thy true home.

Come home, come home! And where a home hath he,

Whose ship is driving o'er the driving sea?

Through clouds that mutter, and o'er waves that roar,
Say, shall we find, or shall we not, a shore

That is, as is not ship or ocean foam,

Indeed our home?

ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH.

Slacken not sail yet

At inlet or island;

Straight for the beacon steer,

Straight for the highland;
Crowd all thy canvas on,
Cut through the foam
Christian, cast anchor now

Heaven is thy home!

CAROLINE BOWLES SOUTHEY.

TH

The Three Fishers.

HREE fishers went sailing away to the West,
Away to the West as the sun went down;

Each thought on the woman who loved him the best,
And the children stood watching them out of the town;
For men must work, and women must weep,
And there's little to earn, and many to keep,
Though the harbor-bar be moaning.

Three wives sat up in the light-house tower,

And they trimmed the lamps as the sun went down ; They looked at the squall, and they looked at the shower, And the night-rack came rolling up ragged and brown. But men must work, and women must weep, Though storms be sudden, and waters deep, And the harbor-bar be moaning.

Three corpses lay out on the shining sands

In the morning gleam as the tide went down,
And the women are weeping and wringing their hands
For those who will never come home to the town;
For men must work, and women must weep,

And the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep;
And good-bye to the bar and its moaning.
CHARLES KINGSLEY.

THE LAND BEYOND THE SEA.

381

The Land beyond the Sea.

HE Land beyond the Sea!

THE

When will life's task be o'er?

When shall we reach that soft blue shore,

O'er the dark strait whose billows foam and roar?

When shall we come to thee,

Calm Land beyond the Sea?

The Land beyond the Sea!

How close it often seems,

When flushed with evening's peaceful gleams;

And the wistful heart looks o'er the strait, and dreams!

It longs to fly to thee,

Calm Land beyond the Sea!

The Land beyond the Sea !

Sometimes distinct and near

It grows upon the eye and ear,

And the gulf narrows to a threadlike mere;

We seem half-way to thee,

Calm Land beyond the Sea !

The Land beyond the Sea!

Sometimes across the strait,

Like a drawbridge to a castle-gate,

The slanting sunbeams lie, and seem to wait

For us to pass to thee,

Calm Land beyond the Sea!

The Land beyond the Sea!

Oh, how the lapsing years,

'Mid our not unsubmissive tears,

Have borne, now singly, now in fleets, the biers

Of those we love to thee,

Calm Land beyond the Sea!