Page:Poems Hoffman.djvu/168

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THE LADY OF THE WRECK

Clear and bright was the liquid depth
Where a beautiful Brazilian barque
In the bosom of grim old ocean slept
With the shades beneath, it green and dark.

Two divers stood on the ruined deck
While the tropic sunbeams overhead
O'er the princely form of the silent wreck
Their tints of dazzling beauty shed.

Half embedded, in yellow sand
And broken coral, the vessel lay;
While a halo of rainbow color spanned
The broken toy of the breaker's play.

The divers halted a moment there
To gaze on the strange and lovely scene,
Before them—the vessel weirdly fair,
Around them—the water's crystal sheen.

Never in all their strange career
Had they made their dangerous deep descent
To a sea so beautiful, bright and clear,
Where the vessel lay all torn and spent.

As they stood entranced, a comrade approached
And beckoning, led the way before
Where the clear bright waters on all encroached,
'Till they halted before a cabin door;

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