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Won't you help support DayPoems? The Wardens of the SeasBy Edwin James BradyBorn 8/7/1869Like star points in the ether to guide a homing soul Towards God's Eternal Haven; above the wash and roll, Across and o'er the oceans, on all the coasts they stand Tall seneschals of commerce, High Wardens of the Strand -- The white lights slowly turning Their kind eyes far and wide, The red and green lights burning Along the waterside. When Night with breath of aloes, magnolia, spice, and balm Creeps down the darkened jungles and mantles reef and palm, By velvet waters making soft music as they surge The shore lights of dark Asia will one by one emerge -- Oh, Ras Marshig by Aden Shows dull on hazy nights; And Bombay Channel's laid in Its "In" and "Outer" lights. When Night, in rain-wet garments comes sobbing cold and grey Across the German Ocean and South from Stornoway, Thro' snarling darkness slowly, some fixed and some a-turn, The bright shore-lights of Europe like welcome tapers burn, -- From fierce Fruholmen streaming O'er Northern ice and snow, To Cape St. Vincent gleaming, -- These lamps of danger glow. The dark Etruscan tending his watchfires by the shore, On sacred altars burning, the world shall know no more; His temple's column standing against the ancient stars Is gone; Now bright catoptrics flash out electric bars, -- Slow swung his stately Argos Unto the Tiber's mouth; But now the Tuscan cargoes Screw-driven, stagger South. The lantern of Genoa guides home no Eastern fleets As when the boy Columbus played in its narrow streets: No more the Keltic `dolmens' their fitful warnings throw Across the lone Atlantic, so long, so long ago -- No more the beaked prows dashing Shall dare a shoreward foam; No more will great oars threshing Sweep Dorian galleys home. No more the Vikings roaring their sagas wild and weird Proclaim that Rome has fallen; no more a consul feared Shall quench the Roman pharos lest Northern pirates free Be pointed to their plunder on coasts of Italy -- Nor shall unwilling lovers, From Lethean pleasures torn, Fare nor'ward with those rovers, To frozen lands forlorn. The bale-fires and the watch-fires, the wrecker's foul false lure No more shall vex the shipmen; and on their course secure Past Pharos in the starlight the tow'ring hulls of Trade Race in and out from Suez in iron cavalcade, -- So rode one sunset olden Across the dark'ning sea, With banners silk and golden, The Barge of Antony! They loom along the foreshores; they gleam across the Straits; They guide the feet of Commerce unto the harbor gates. In nights of storm and thunder, thro' fog and sleet and rain, Like stars on angels' foreheads, they give man heart again, -- Oh, hear the high waves smashing On Patagonia's shore! Oh, hear the black waves threshing Their weight on Skerryvore! He searches night's grim chances upon his bridge alone And seeks the distant glimmer of hopeful Eddystone: And thro' a thick fog creeping, with chart and book and lead, The homeward skipper follows their green and white and red -- By day his lighthouse wardens In sunlit quiet stand, But in the night the burdens Are theirs of Sea and Land. They fill that night with Knowledge. A thousand ships go by, A thousand captains bless them, so bright and proud and high: The world's dark capes they glamour; or low on sand banks dread, They, crouching, mark a pathway between the Quick and Dead -- Like star points in the ether They bring the seamen ease, These Lords of Wind and Weather These Wardens of the Seas! DayPoems Poem No. 969 Comment on DayPoems? If you are like us, you have strong feelings about poetry, and about each poem you read. Let it all out! Comment on this poem, any poem, DayPoems, other poetry places or the art of poetry at DayPoems Feedback. Won't you help support DayPoems? Click here to learn more about how you can keep DayPoems on the Web . . . Copyright The DayPoems web site, www.daypoems.net, is copyright 2001-2005 by Timothy K. Bovee. All rights reserved. The authors of poetry and other material appearing on DayPoems retain full rights to their work. Any requests for publication in other venues must be negotiated separately with the authors. The editor of DayPoems will gladly assist in putting interested parties in contact with the authors. |
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