It was a time for mariners to bear a wary eye,
With such a dark conspiracy between the sea and sky!

Down went my helm-close reefed the tack held freely in my hand —

With ballast snug- I put about, and scudded for the

land.

Loud hissed the sea beneath her lee; my little boat flew

fast,

But faster still the rushing storm came borne upon the

blast.

Lord! what a roaring hurricane beset the straining sail! What furious sleet, with level drift, and fierce assaults

of hail!

What darksome caverns yawned before! what jagged steeps behind!

Like battle-steeds, with foamy manes, wild tossing in the wind.

Each after each sank down astern, exhausted in the chase, But where it sank another rose and galloped in its place; As black as night-they turned to white, and cast against the cloud

A snowy sheet, as if each surge upturned a sailor's shroud :

Still flew my boat; alas! alas! her course was nearly run!

Behold yon fatal billow rise ten billows heaped in one! With fearful speed the dreary mass came rolling, rolling

fast,

As if the scooping sea contained only one wave, at last!
Still on it came, with horrid roar, a swift-pursuing grave!
It seemed as though some cloud had turned its hugeness
to a wave!

Its briny sleet began to beat beforehand in my face —
I felt the rearward keel begin to climb its swelling base!

་

I saw its Alpine hoary head impending over mine! Another pulse, and down it rushed, an avalanche of

brine!

Brief pause had I, on God to cry, or think of wife and

home;

The waters closed

low the foam!

and when I shrieked, I shrieked be

Beyond that rush I have no hint of any after deed – For I was tossing on the waste, as senseless as a weed.

*

"Where am I? in the breathing world, or in the world

With sharp and sudden pang I drew another birth of

breath;

My eyes drank in a doubtful light, my ears a doubtful

sound,

And was that ship a real ship whose tackle seemed around?

A moon, as if the earthly moon, was shining up aloft; But were those beams the very beams that I had seen so oft?

A face that mocked the human face before me watched alone;

But were those eyes the eyes of man that looked against my own?

O! never may the moon again disclose me such a sight As met my gaze, when first I looked on that accursed

night!

I've seen a thousand horrid shapes begot of fierce ex

tremes

Of fever; and most frightful things have haunted in my dreams

Hyenas, cats, blood-loving bats, and apes with hateful

stare,

Pernicious snakes, and shaggy bulls, the lion and she

bear,

Strong enemies, with Judas looks, of treachery and

spite

Detested features, hardly dimmed and banished by the light!

Pale-sheeted ghosts, with gory locks, upstarting from their tombs

All fantasies and images that flit in midnight glooms Hags, goblins, demons, lemures, have made me all aghast,

But nothing like that GRIMLY ONE who stood beside the mast!

His cheek was black his brow was black - his eyes and hair as dark:

His hand was black, and where it touched it left a sable

mark;

His throat was black, his vest the same; and when I looked beneath,

His breast was black - all, all was black, except his grinning teeth.

His sooty crew were like in hue, as black as Afric slaves! O, horror! e'en the ship was black that ploughed the inky waves!

"Alas!" I cried, "for love of truth and blessed mercy's sake,

Where am I? in what dreadful ship? upon what dread

ful lake ?

What shape is that, so very grim, and black as any

coal?

It is Mahound, the Evil One, and he has gained my soul!

O, mother dear! my tender nurse! dear meadows that

beguiled

My happy days, when I was yet a little sinless child,· My mother dear my native fields, I never more shall see: I'm sailing in the Devil's Ship, upon the Devil's Sea!"

Loud laughed that SABLE MARINER, and loudly in return His sooty crew sent forth a laugh that rang from stem

A dozen pair of grimly cheeks were crumpled on the

nonce

As many sets of grinning teeth came shining out at once; A dozen gloomy shapes at once enjoyed the merry fit, With shriek and yell, and oaths as well, like demons of the Pit.

They crowed their fill, and then the Chief made answer for the whole;

-

"Our skins," said he, "are black, ye see, because we carry coal;

You'll find your mother sure enough, and see your native fields

For this here ship has picked you up, the Mary Ann of Shields!"

SPRING.

A NEW VERSION.

"Ham. The air bites shrewdly -
-it is very cold.
Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air."- HAMLET.

"COME, gentle Spring! ethereal mildness, come!"
O! Thomson, void of rhyme as well as reason,
How couldst thou thus poor human nature hum?
There's no such season.

The Spring! I shrink and shudder at her name!
For why, I find her breath a bitter blighter!
And suffer from her blows as if they came
From Spring the Fighter.

Her praises, then, let hardy poets sing,
And be her tuneful laureates and upholders,
Who do not feel as if they had a Spring
Poured down their shoulders.

Let others eulogize her floral shows;

From me they cannot win a single stanza.
I know her blooms are in full blow- and so's
The Influenza.

Her cowslips, stocks, and lilies of the vale,

Her honey-blossoms that you hear the bees at, Her pansies, daffodils, and primrose pale, Are things I sneeze at!

Fair is the vernal quarter of the year!
And fair its early buddings and its blowings
But just suppose Consumption's seeds appear
With other sowings!

For me, I find, when eastern winds are high,
A frigid, not a genial inspiration;
Nor can, like Iron-Chested Chubb, defy
An inflammation.

Smitten by breezes from the land of plague,
To me all vernal luxuries are fables;
O! where's the Spring in a rheumatic leg,
Stiff as a table's ?