SELECT POETRY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 282, 26 June 1873, Page 7

SELECT POETRY.

THE CAPTAIN OP THE NORTHFLEET. BY GERALD MASSSY. So often is the proud deed done By men like this at duty's call ; So niany are the honours won By them, we cannot wear them all ! They make the heroic commonplace, And dying thus the natural way ; Yet is our world- wide English race Ennobled by that death, To-day ! It brings the thoughts that fathom things Do anchor fast where billows roll ; It stirs us with a sense of wings That strive to lift the earthiest soul. Love was bo new, and life so sweet, But at the call he left the wine And sprang full-statured to his^eet, Responsive to the touch divine. "{Nay, dear, I cannot see you die. For vie, 1 have my work to do fUp Itere. Down to tl\& boat. Good-bye, Good bless you ! I shall see it through." We read, until the vision dims And drowns ; but, ere the pang be past, A tide of triumph overbrims And breaks with light from heaven at last. Thro' all the blackness of that night A glory streams from out the gloom ; His steadfast spirit holds the light That shines till Night is overcome. The sea will do its worst, and life Be sobbed out in a bubbling breath ; But firmly in the coward strife There stands a man who hath vanquisht Death! A soul that conquers wind and wave, And towers above a sinking deck ; A bridge across the gaping grave ; A rainbow rising o'er the wreck. He saved others ; saved the name -Unsullied that he gave his wife : And dying with so pure an aim, Jle had no need to save his life. jiord ! how they shame the life we live, These sailors of our sea-girt isle, Who cheerily take what Thou mayst give, And go down with a heavenward smile ! The' men who sow their lives to yield A glorious crop in lives to be ; Who turn to England's harvest field The unfruitful furrows of the sea. With such a breed of men so brave, The Old Land has not had her day ; But long, her strength, with crested wave, Shall ride the seas, the proud old way