Volume II Part 76 (1/2)
A KNIGHT OF THE OCEAN-SEA
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, hard of hand, Knight-in-chief of the Ocean-sea, Gazed from the rocks of his New Found Land And thought of the home where his heart would be.
He gazed across the wintry waste That weltered and hissed like molten lead,-- ”He saileth twice who saileth in haste!
I'll wait the favour of Spring,” he said.
_Ever the more, ever the more, He heard the winds and the waves roar!
Thunder on thunder shook the sh.o.r.e._
The yellow clots of foam went by Like shavings that curl from a s.h.i.+p-wright's plane, Clinging and flying, afar and nigh, Shuddering, flying and clinging again.
A thousand bubbles in every one s.h.i.+fted and s.h.i.+mmered with rainbow gleams; But--had they been planets and stars that spun He had let them drift by his feet like dreams:
Heavy of heart was our Admirall, For, out of his s.h.i.+ps--and they were but three!-- He had lost the fairest and most tall, And--he was a Knight of the Ocean-sea.
_Ever the more, ever the more, He heard the winds and the waves roar!
Thunder on thunder shook the sh.o.r.e._
Heavy of heart, heavy of heart, For she was a galleon mighty as May, And the storm that ripped her glory apart Had stripped his soul for the winter's way;
And he was aware of a whisper blown From foc'sle to p.o.o.p, from windward to lee, That the fault was his, and his alone, And--he was a Knight of the Ocean-sea.
”Had he done that! Had he done this!”
And yet his mariners loved him well; But an idle word is hard to miss, And the foam hides more than the deep can tell.
And the deep had buried his best-loved books, With many a hard-worn chart and plan: And a king that is conquered must see strange looks, So bitter a thing is the heart of man!
And--”Who will you find to pay your debt?
For a venture like this is a costly thing!
Will they stake yet more, tho' your heart be set On the mightier voyage you planned for the Spring?”
He raised his head like a Viking crowned,-- ”I'll take my old flag to her Majestie, And she will lend me ten thousand pound To make her Queen of the Ocean-sea!”
_Ever the more, ever the more, He heard the winds and the waves roar!
Thunder on thunder shook the sh.o.r.e._
Outside--they heard the great winds blow!
Outside--the bl.u.s.tering surf they heard, And the bravest there would ha' blenched to know That they must be taken at their own word.
For the great grim waves were as molten lead --And he had two s.h.i.+ps who sailed with three!-- ”And I sail not home till the Spring,” he said, ”They are all too frail for the Ocean-sea.”
But the trumpeter thought of an ale-house bench, And the cabin-boy longed for a Devons.h.i.+re lane, And the gunner remembered a green-gowned wench, And the fos'cle whisper went round again,--
”Sir Humphrey Gilbert is hard of hand, But his courage went down with the s.h.i.+p, may-be, And we wait for the Spring in a desert land, For--_he is afraid of the Ocean-sea_.”
_Ever the more, ever the more, He heard the winds and the waves roar!
Thunder on thunder shook the sh.o.r.e._
He knew, he knew how the whisper went!
He knew he must master it, last or first!