The Forging of the Anchor: A Poem |
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Page xi - leap out — leap out;' bang, bang the sledges go: Hurrah! the jetted lightnings are hissing high and low — A hailing fount of fire is struck at every squashing blow; The leathern mail rebounds the hail, the rattling cinders strow The ground around; at every bound the sweltering fountains flow, And thick and loud the swinking crowd at every stroke pant 'ho!
Page xix - And for the ghastly-grinning shark to laugh his jaws to scorn ; To leap down on the kraken's back, where 'mid Norwegian isles He lies, a lubber anchorage for sudden...
Page viii - tis at a white heat now : The bellows ceased, the flames decreased though on the forge's brow The little flames still fitfully play through the sable mound, And fitfully you still may see the grim smiths ranking round, All clad in leathern panoply, their broad hands only bare : Some rest upon their sledges here, some work the windlass there. The windlass strains the tackle chains, the black mound heaves below, And red and deep a hundred veins burst out at every throe : It rises, roars, rends all...
Page xvi - Our hammers ring with sharper din, our work will soon be sped: Our anchor soon must change his bed of fiery rich array, For a hammock at the roaring bows, or an oozy couch of clay ; Our anchor soon must change the lay of merry craftsmen here, For the yeo-heave-o , and the heave-away, and the sighing seaman's cheer, When, weighing slow, at eve they go, far.
Page xvii - Yeo-heave-o', and the Heave-away, and the sighing seaman's cheer ; When, weighing slow, at eve they go, far, far from love and home ; And sobbing sweethearts, in a row, wail o'er the ocean foam. In livid and obdurate gloom he darkens down at last ; A shapely one he is, and strong...
Page xxii - Thine iron side would swell with pride; thou 'dst leap within the sea! Give honor to their memories who left the pleasant strand, To shed their blood so freely for the love of Fatherland ; Who left their chance of quiet age and grassy church-yard grave, So freely, for a restless bed amid the tossing wave.
Page xxii - O lodger in the sea-kings' halls ! couldst thou but understand Whose be the white bones by thy side — or who that dripping band, Slow swaying in the heaving wave, that round about thee bend, With sounds like breakers in a dream blessing their ancient friend...
Page xii - Leap out, leap out, my masters ; leap out, and lay on load ! Let's forge a goodly anchor — a bower thick and broad ; For a heart of oak is hanging on every blow, I bode, And I see the good ship riding, all in a perilous road — The low reef roaring on her lee — the roll of ocean...
Page xx - O broad-armed Fisher of the deep, whose sports can equal thine ? The Dolphin weighs a thousand tons, that tugs thy cable line ; And night by night, 'tis thy delight, thy glory day by day, Through sable sea and breaker white, the giant game to play...
Page iv - From stem to stern, sea after sea; The mainmast by the board ; The bulwarks down, the rudder gone, The boats stove at the chains ! But courage still, brave mariners — The...