Alone in the dark, alone on the wave
To buffet the storm alone;

To struggle aghast at thy watery grave,
To struggle and feel there is none to save!
God shield thee, helpless one!

The stout limbs yield, for their strength is past.
The trembling hands on the deep are cast;
The white brow gleams a moment more,
Then slowly sinks-the struggle is o'er.

Down, down, where the storm is hushed to sleep,
Where the sea its dirge shall swell;
Where the amber-drops for thee shall weep,
And the rose-lipped shell its music keep;
There thou shalt slumber well.

The gem and the pearl lie heaped at thy side;
They fell from the neck of the beautiful bride,
From the strong man's hand, from the maiden's brow,
As they slowly sunk to the wave below.

A peopled home is the ocean-bed;

The mother and child are there:

The fervent youth and the hoary head,
The maid with her floating locks outspread,
The babe with its silken hair:

As the water moveth they slightly sway,
And the tranquil light on their features play:
And there is each cherished and beautiful form,
Away from decay, and away from the storm.

THE DIVER.

(SCHILLER.)

"Oh, where is the knight or the squire so bold,
As to dive to the howling charybdis below?-
I cast into the whirlpool a goblet of gold,
And o'er it already the dark waters flow:
Whoever to me may the goblet bring,

Shall have for his guerdon that gift of his king."

He spoke, and the cup from the terrible steep,
That rugged and hoary, hung over the verge
Of the endless and measureless world of the deep,
Swirled into the mælstrom that maddened the surge.
"And where is the diver so stout to go-

I ask ye again-to the deep below?"

And the knights and the squires that gathered around,
Stood silent-and fixed on the ocean their eyes;
They looked on the dismal and savage profound,
And the peril chilled back every thought of the prize.
And thrice spoke the monarch-"The cup to win,
Is there never a wight who will venture in ?"

And all as before heard in silence the king

Till a youth, with an aspect unfearing but gentle, 'Mid the tremulous squires, stept out from the ring, Unbuckling his girdle, and doffing his mantle; And the murmuring crowd, as they parted asunder. On the stately boy cast their looks of wonder.

As he strode to the marge of the summit, and gave
One glance on the gulf of that merciless main;
Lo! the wave that forever devours the wave,

Casts roaringly up the charybdis again;

And, as with the swell of the far thunder-boom, Rushes foamingly forth from the heart of the gloom.

And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and roars,
As when fire is with water commixed and contending;
And the spray of its wrath to the welkin up-soars,
And flood upon flood hurries on, never ending.
And it never will rest, nor from travail be free,
Like a sea that is laboring the birth of a sea.

And at last there lay open the desolate realm! Through the breakers that whitened the waste of the swell,

Dark-dark yawned a cleft in the midst of the whelm, The path to the heart of that fathomless hell.

Round and round whirled the waves-deep and deeper

still driven,

Like a gorge thro' the mountainous main thunder-riven,

The youth gave his trust to his Maker! Before

That path through the riven abyss closed again— Hark! a shriek from the crowd rang aloft from the shore,

And, behold! he is whirled in the grasp of the main!
And o'er him the breakers mysteriously rolled,
And the giant-mouth closed on the swimmer so bold.

O'er the surface grim silence lay dark and profound,
But the deep from below murmured hollow and fell;
And the crowd, as it shuddered, lamented aloud—
"Gallant youth-noble heart-fare-thee-well, fare-

thee-well!"

And still ever deepening that wail as of woe,
More hollow the gulf sent its howl from below.

If thou should'st in those waters thy diadem fling,
And cry,
"Who may find it shall win it, and wear;"
God's wot, though the prize were the crown of a king-
A crown at such hazard were valued too dear.

For never did lips of the living reveal,

What the deeps that howl yonder in terror conceal.

Oh, many a ship, to that breast grappled fast,

Has gone down to the fearful and fathomless grave; Again, crashed together, the keel and the mast,

To be seen, tossed aloft in the glee of the wave.— Like the growth of a storm ever louder and clearer, Grows the roar of the gulf rising nearer and nearer.

And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and roars,
As when fire is with water commixed and contending;
And the spray of its wrath to the welkin up-soars,
And flood upon flood hurries on, never ending.
And, as with the swell of the far thunder-boom,
Rushes roaringly forth from the heart of the gloom.

And, lo! from the heart of that far-floating gloom,

What gleams on the darkness so swanlike and white? Lo! an arm and a neck, glancing up from the tomb!— They battle-the Man's with the Element's might.

It is he-it is he !-in his left hand behold,

As a sign as a joy !-shines the goblet of gold!

And he breathed deep, and he breathed long,

And he greeted the heavenly delight of the day. They gaze on each other-they shout as they throng"He lives-lo the ocean has rendered its prey! And out of the grave where the Hell began,

His valor has rescued the living man!"

And he comes with the crowd in their clamor and glee, And the goblet his daring has won from the water, He lifts to the king as he sinks on his knee;

And the king from her maidens has beckoned his daughter,

And he bade her the wine to his cup-bearer bring,
And thus spake the Diver-"Long life to the king!
"Happy they whom the rose-hues of daylight rejoice,
The air and the sky that to mortals are given!
May the horrors below never more find a voice-

Nor Man stretch too far the wide mercy of Heaven! Never more never more may he lift from the mirror, The Veil which is woven with NIGHT and with TERROR!

"Quick-brightening like lightning-it tore me along,
Down, down, till the gush of a torrent at play,
In the rocks of its wilderness caught me and strong
As the wings of an eagle, it whirled me away.
Vain, vain were my struggles-the circle had won me,
Round and round in its dance the wild element spun

me.

"And I called on my God, and my God heard my prayer,

In the strength of my need, in the gasp of my

breath

And showed me a crag that rose up from the lair,

And I clung to it, trembling-and baffled the death!

And, safe in the perils around me, behold
On the spikes of the coral the goblet of gold.

"Below, at the foot of that precipice drear,

Spread the gloomy, and purple, and pathless obscure! A Silence of Horror that slept on the ear,

That the eye more appalled might the Horror endure ! Salamander-snake-dragon-vast reptiles that dwell In the deep-coiled about the grim jaws of their hell.

"Dark-crawled-glided dark the unspeakable swarms,
Like masses unshapen, made life hideously-
Here clung and here bristled the fashionless forms-
Here the Hammer-fish darkened the dark of the sea-
And with teeth grinning white, and a menacing motion,
Went the terrible Shark-the Hyena of Ocean.

"There I hung, and the awe gathered icily o'er me,
So far from the earth where man's help there was
none!

The One Human Thing, with the Goblins before meAlone-in a loneness so ghastly-ALONE!

Fathom-deep from man's eye in the speechless profound, With the death of the Main and the Monsters around.

"Methought, as I gazed through the darkness, that

now

A hundred-limbed creature caught sight of its prey, And darted-O God! from the far-flaming bough

Of the coral, I swept on the horrible way;

And it seized me, the wave with its wrath and its roar, It seized me to save-King, the danger is o'er!"

On the youth gazed the monarch, and marveled-quoth he,

"Bold Diver, the goblet I promised is thine,

And this ring will I give, a fresh guerdon to thee, Never jewels more precious shone up from the mine; If thou'lt bring me fresh tidings, and venture again, To say what lies hid in the innermost main !"