free-verse42 lines
Let Us Turn Hitherward Our Bark.
by Charles Stuart CalverleyR. C. TRENCH.
"Let us turn hitherward our bark," they cried,
"And, 'mid the blisses of this happy isle,
Past toil forgetting and to come, abide
In joyfulness awhile.
And then, refreshed, our tasks resume again,
If other tasks we yet are bound unto,
Combing the hoary tresses of the main
With sharp swift keel anew."
O heroes, that had once a nobler aim,
O heroes, sprung from many a godlike line,
What will ye do, unmindful of your fame,
And of your race divine?
But they, by these prevailing voices now
Lured, evermore draw nearer to the land,
Nor saw the wrecks of many a goodly prow,
That strewed that fatal strand;
Or seeing, feared not - warning taking none
From the plain doom of all who went before,
Whose bones lay bleaching in the wind and sun,
And whitened all the shore.
"QUIN HUC, FREMEBANT."
"Quin hue," fremebant, "dirigimus ratem:
Hic, dote laeti divitis insulae,
Paullisper haeremus, futuri
Nec memores operis, nec acti:
"Curas refecti cras iterabimus,
Si qua supersunt emeritis novae
Pexisse pernices acuta
Canitiem pelagi carina."
O rebus olim nobilioribus
Pares: origo Di quibus ac Deae
Heroes! oblitine famiae
Haec struitis, generisque summi?
Atqui propinquant jam magis ac magis,
Ducti magistra voce, solum: neque
Videre prorarum nefandas
Fragmina nobilium per oras;
Vidisse seu non poenitet - ominis
Incuriosos tot praeeuntium,
Quorum ossa sol siccantque venti,
Candet adhuc quibus omnis ora.