THE BALLAD OF CARMILHAN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 235, 1 August 1872, Page 9

THE BALLAD OF CARMILHAN.

Bt Henry W. Longfellow. (In tlve " Atlantic Monthly "J At Stmlsund, by the Baltic Sea, Within the sandy bar, At sunset of a. summer's day, Ready for sea, at anchor lay The good ship Yaldemar. The sunbeams danced upon the waves, And played along her side, And through the cabin windows streamed In ripples of golden light, that seemed The ripple of the tide. There sat the captain with his friends, — Old skippers brown and hale, TVho smoked and grumbled o'er their grog, And talked of iceberg and of fog, Of calm and storm and gale. And one was spinning a Jailor's yarn About Klaboterman, -*"' The Kobold of the &a ; a sprite Invisible to mortal sight, Who o'er the rigging ran. Sometimes he hauanered in the hold. Sometimes upoji the mast, Sometimes abeajfi, sometimes abaft, Or at the bemns he sang and laughed, ■a-1"1 •v>Q(lft aU tight and fast. \S etoi&^ c? ail .°f »* tlieir work > He heir mtix J ovial dm ; w >,e ip.i>ed them hoist and reef the sails, . /fed them stow the casks and bales, Ja heave the anchor in. Jut woe unto the lazy lout 3, s The idlers of the crew ; Them to torment is his delight, And worry them by day and night, And pinch them black and blue. And woe to him whose mortal eyes Klaboterman behold; It is a certain sign of death !—! — s The cabin-boy here held his breath, He felt his blood run cold. The jolly skipper here paused awhile And then again began ; '* There is a Spectre Ship," quoth he, " A Ship of the Dead, that sails the sea, And is called the Carmilham* "A ghostly ship, with ghostly crew. In tempest she appears ; And before the gale, or ag.iiiisfc the gale, She sails without a rag of sail, Without a helmsman steers. "She haunts the Atlantic north and south, But mostly the mid-sea, "Where three great rocks lise bleak and bare Like f lrnace chimneys in the air, And aie called theChimueys Three. " And ill betide the luckles ship That meets the Caraiilhan: Over her decks the seas will leap, She must go down into the deep, And perish mouse and man." The captain of the "Valdemar Laughed loud with merry heirfc, " I should like to see this ship,' said he ; "I should like to find these Chin.n )j s Three, That are marked down in the chart. "I have sailed right over the spot," he said, " With a good stiff breeze behind, \YLen the sea was blue, and the sky was clear, — You can follow my course by these pinholes here, — And never a rock could find. 3*3 * And then he swore a dreadful oath, He swore by the Kingdoms Tlnee, That should he meet the drmilhan. He would run her down, although he ran. Right into Eternity • Eigh^. 'iells ! and suddenly abaft, , With a great rush of rain, JiHking the ocean white with spume, ~ In darkness like the day of doom, On came the hurricane. The lightning flashed from cloud to cloud, And tore the dark in two ; A jaeged flame, a single jet Of white fire, like a bayonet. That pierced his eyeballs through. Then all around was dark again, And blacker than before ; But in that single flash of light The captain saw a feaiful sight, And thought of the oath he swore. For right ahead lay the Ship of the Dead, The ghostly Carmilhan ! Her masts were stripped her yards were bare, And on her bowsprit, poised in air, Sat the Claboterman. Her crew of ghosts was all on deck, ] Or clambering up the shrouds : '< The boatswain's whistle, the captain's hail, Were like the piping of the gale, And thunder in the clouds. And close behind the Carmilhan There rose up from the sea, As from a foundered ship of stone, Three bare and splintered masts alone : They were the Chimneys Three ! And onward dashed the "Valdemar, And leaped into the dark, • A denser mist, a colder blast, • A little shudder, and she had passed Right through the Phantom Bark. She cleft in twain the shadowy bulk, But cleft it unaware ! As when caeering to her nest, The sea-gull severs with her breast, The unresisting air. Again the lightning flashed; again They saw the Carmilhan, Whole as before in hull and spar; But now on board of the Valdemar Stood the Klaboterman. And they all knew their doom was sealed; They knew that death was near ; Some prayed who never prayed before And some they wept, and some they swore, And some were mute with fear. Then suddenly there came a shock, And louder than wind or sea, A cry burst from the crew on deck, As she dashed and crashed, a hopeless wreck, Upon the Chimneys Three. The storm and night were passed, the light To streak the east began ; The cabin-boy, picked up at sea, Survived the wreck, and only he, To tell of the Carmil! a:i. "We shall not be open .to-morrow," said a Parisian shopkeeper to a Yankee customer, " because to-morrow is Ascension Day," "Ah !" said the American, " can yog tell me from where does the balloon go up." A country editor thinks that Richelieu, who declared that *( the pen is mightier than the sword," ought to have spoken a good word for the scissors. The last novelty in sewing machines is one that wil} follow the thread of an argument. A Chicago journal considers the destruction of about a cartload of l( original poetry " in its office as the most gratifying feature of the fire. Con. —Why are good women like ivy 1 —Because the greater the ruin the closer they cling. Why are bad women like ivy I—Becausel —Because the closer they cling the greater the ruin.