Page:Poems Cook.djvu/335

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THE DECK OF THE "OUTWARD BOUND".
A gentle smile lights up his face,
And then he turns to gaze around;
For he has come to choose the place
Where he shall sleep in hallow'd ground:
"Just by yon daisy patch," saith he,
"'Tis there, 'tis there, I'd have it be."

The bridal hearts in triumph glow,
With all the world before them yet;
The old man's pulse beats calm and slow,
Like sun rays, lengthening as they set.
They see the fancied hours to come;
He sees the real days gone by:
They deem the earth a fairy home;
He thinks it well that man should die.
Oh goodly sight—it should be so—
Youth glad to stay—age fit to go!


THE DECK OF THE "OUTWARD BOUND."
How seldom we dream of the mariners' graves,
Far down by the coral strand;
How little we think of the winds and the waves,
When all we love are on land.
The hurricane comes and the hurricane goes,
And little the heed we take;
Though the tree may snap as the tempest blows,
And the walls of our homestead shake.
But the north-east gale tells a different tale,
With a voice of fearful sound;
When a loved one is under a close-reef'd sail,
On the deck of an "outward bound."

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