THE CARIB SEA
And where the rude sponge-fisher dwells
In his wattled hut, alone.
Southward, amid the strait,
Is the Castle Island Light;
Of all that bound the ocean round
It has the loneliest site.
II
'Twixt earth and heaven the waves are driven
Sorely upon its flank;
The light streams out for sea-leagues seven
To the Great Bahama Bank.
A girded tower, a furlong scant
Of whitened sand and rock,
And one sole being the waters seeing,
Where the gull and gannet flock.
He is the warder of the pass
That mariners must find;
His beard drifts down like the ashen moss
Which hangs in the southern wind.
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