Page:Poems Davidson.djvu/157

"Perchance those strange and wayward signs
 May be the signals of distress,"
The Captain cried, "for mark ye, now,
 Her sails are flapping wide and loose."

And now the stranger vessel came
 Near to that gay and gallant bark;
It seemed a wanderer far and lone,
 Upon life's wave, so deep and dark.

And not a murmur, not a sound,
 Came from that lone and dreary ship;
The icy chains of silence bound
 Each rayless eye and pallid lip.

For Death's wing had been waving there,
 The cold dew hung on every brow,
And sparkled there like angel tears,
 Shed o'er the silent crew below.

Onward that ship was gayly flying,
 Its bosom was the sailor's grave;
The breeze 'mid the shrouds, in low notes, sighing
 Their requiem over the brave.

Fly on, fly on, thou lone vessel of death,
 Fly on with thy desolate crew;
For mermaids are twining a sea-weed wreath,
 'Mong the red coral groves for you.