Like a beauteous barge was she,
Still at rest on the sandy beach,
Just beyond the billow's reach;
But he

Was the restless, seething, stormy sea!

Ah, how skilful grows the hand
That obeyeth Love's command!
It is the heart, and not the brain,
That to the highest doth attain,
And he who followeth Love's behest
Far excelleth all the rest!

VIII.

Thus with the rising of the sun
Was the noble task begun,
And soon throughout the ship-yard's
bounds

Were heard the intermingled sounds
Of axes and of mallets, plied
With vigorous arms on every side;
Plied so deftly and so well,
That, ere the shadows of evening fell,
The keel of oak for a noble ship,
Scarfed and bolted, straight and strong,
Was lying ready, and stretched along
The blocks, well placed upon the slip.
Happy, thrice happy, every one
Who sees his labor well begun,
And not perplexed and multiplied,
By idly waiting for time and tide !

IX.

And when the hot, long day was o'er, The young man at the Master's door Sat with the maiden calm and still. And within the porch, a little more Removed beyond the evening chill, The father sat, and told them tales Of wrecks in the great September gales,

Of pirates coasting the Spanish Main,
And ships that never came back again,
The chance and change of a sailor's
life,

Want and plenty, rest and strife,
His roving fancy, like the wind,

That nothing can stay and nothing can bind,

And the magic charm of foreign lands, With shadows of palms, and shining sands,

Where the tumbling surf,

O'er the coral reefs of Madagascar, Washes the feet of the swarthy Las

car,

As he lies alone and asleep on the turf.

And the trembling maiden held her breath

At the tales of that awful, pitiless sea,
With all its terror and mystery,
The dim, dark sea, so like unto Death,
That divides and yet unites man-
kind!

And whenever the old man paused, a gleam

From the bowl of his pipe would awhile illume

The silent group in the twilight gloom, And thoughtful faces, as in a dream ; And for a moment one might mark What had been hidden by the dark, That the head of the maiden lay at rest,

Tenderly, on the young man's breast!

X.

Day by day the vessel grew, With timbers fashioned strong and true, Stemson and keelson and sternsonknee,

Till, framed with perfect symmetry,
A skeleton ship rose up to view!
And around the bows and along the
side

The heavy hammers and mallets piled,
Till after many a week, at length,
Wonderful for form and strength,
Sublime in its enormous bulk,
Loomed aloft the shadowy hulk!
And around it columns of smoke, up-
wreathing,

Rose from the boiling, bubbling, seeth

ing

Caldron, that glowed,

And overflowed

Like a ghost in its snow-white sark,
The pilot of some phantom bark,
Guiding the vessel, in its flight,
By a path none other knows aright!

sheathing.

And amid the clamors

Of clattering hammers,

He who listened heard now and then

The song of the Master and his

men:

CLASS.

"Build me straight, O worthy Master,
Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel,
That shall laugh at all disaster,
And

with wave and whirlwind wrestle!"

XI.

With oaken brace and copper-band, Lay the rudder on the sand, That, like a thought, should have control

Over the movement of the whole; And near it the anchor, whose giant hand

Would reach down and grapple with the land,

And immovable and fast

Hold the great ship against the bellowing blast!

And at the bows an image stood,
By a cunning artist carved in wood,
With robes of white, that far behind
Seemed to be fluttering in the wind.
It was not shaped in a classic mould,
Not like a Nymph or Goddess of
old,

Or Naiad rising from the water,

But modelled from the Master's daughter!

On many a dreary and misty night,

They fell, those lordly pines!
Those grand, majestic pines!
'Mid shouts and cheers
The jaded steers,

Panting beneath the goad,

Dragged down the weary. winding road Those captive kings so straight and tall.

To be shorn of their streaming hair,
And, naked and bare,

To feel the stress and the strain
Of the wind and the reeling main,
Whose roar

Would remind them forevermore
Of their native forests they should not
see again.

XIII.

And everywhere
The slender, graceful spars
Poise aloft in the air,
And at the mast-head,
White, blue, and red,

A flag unrolls the stripes and stars.
Ah! when the wanderer, lonely, friend-

less,

In foreign harbors shall behold That flag unrolled,

nal light,

the dark,

and endless!

CLASS.

All is finished! and at length
Has come the bridal day
Of beauty and of strength.
To-day the vessel shall be launched!

With fleecy clouds the sky is blanched,
And o'er the bay,

Slowly, in all his splendors dight,

The great sun rises to behold the sight.

The ocean old, Centuries old,

XIV.

Strong as youth, and as uncontrolled,
Paces restless to and fro,

Up and down the sands of gold.
His beating heart is not at rest;
And far and wide,
With ceaseless flow,
His beard of snow

Heaves with the heaving of his breast.
He waits impatient for his bride.
There she stands,

With her foot upon the sands,
Decked with flags and streamers gay,
In honor of her marriage day,
Her snow-white signals fluttering,
blending,

Round her like a veil descending,
Ready to be

The bride of the gray old sea.

XV.

On the deck another bride Is standing by her lover's side. Shadows from the flags and shrouds, Like the shadows cast by clouds, Broken by many a sunny fleck, Fall around them on the deck.

XVI.

The prayer is said,

The service read,

The joyous bridegroom bows his head; And in tears the good old Master

Shakes the brown hand of his son,
Kisses his daughter's glowing cheek
In silence, for he cannot speak,
And ever faster

Down his own the tears begin to run.
The worthy pastor—

The shepherd of that wandering flock,
That has the ocean for its wold,
That has the vessel for its fold,
Leaping ever from rock to rock
Spake, with accents mild and clear,
Words of warning, words of cheer,
But tedious to the bridegroom's ear.
He knew the chart

Of the sailor's heart,

All its pleasures and its griefs,
All its shallows and rocky reefs,
All those secret currents, that flow
With such resistless undertow,

And lift and drift, with terrible force,
The will from its moorings and its

Through wind and wave, right onward

steer!

The moistened eye, the trembling lip, Are not the signs of doubt or fear.

XX.

Sail forth into the sea of life, O gentle, loving, trusting wife, And safe from all adversity Upon the bosom of that sea Thy comings and thy goings be! For gentleness and love and trust Prevail o'er angry wave and gust; And in the wreck of noble lives Something immortal still survives!

CLASS.

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O UNION, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,

With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of
steel,

Who made each mast, and sail, and 'rope,

What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
'Tis of the wave and not the rock;
'Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest's roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with
thee,

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers,

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