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Martha Douglas Journal

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Revision as of Mar 28, 2016, 7:21:04 PM, edited by 172.16.2.144

Level 2

bold The Wreck of the Wright. text before


text after [From the Portland Herald.] text before


text after The sun has set, and all alone
A steamer battles with the sea :
Her plume of smoke is backward blown--
The conquering wave bends sullenly.
And chill and drear a shadow creeps
Along the wild and misty deeps
That roll to windward and a-lee.

With maniac laughter, deep and low,
The hungry caverns mock her way ;
A pallid sea-bird, wheeling slow,
Shrieks to his mother sea, below
The hopeless flight of human prey ;
And o'er the waste of water broods
The dreariest of Nature's moods,
Bereft of all save bleak dismay.

A sudden blenching strikes the sea
To windward, and the fearful twang
Of Neptune's trident, hums a glee
Of might and wrath and agony,
Far where the breakers boom and clang ;
Like flying shrouds from riffed graves,
The foam lies gleaming on the waves
Whence ocean's slumb'ring furies sprang.

The stricken billows lean away
With trampling thunders in the gale,
And staggering blindly to the fray
The frail ship starts each bolt and stay ;--
Her cordage shrieks and with a wail
She plunges downward in the gloom
Of roaring gorges hoarse with doom--
And none alive may tell the tale !

What thoughts there came of home and friends,
What prayers were said, what kisses thrown--
Were lost upon the wind that lends
Its borrowed wealth no more, and blends
A sigh of trouble with the moan
That sadly haunts the restless waves,
Forever rolling o'er the caves,
Where richer things than pearls are strewn.

They sailed one day and came--no more !
All else is wrapt in mystery :
The surges kneel upon the shore
And tell their sorrows o'er and o'er ;
And still above the Northern sea,
A pensive spirit, pale and slow,
The gray gull wheeling to and fro',
Keeps watch and ward eternally.

                                                                                                  --KNA

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Level 2

boldThe Reason Why.