Southern Argus., 1839-07-30
P. BYRON BARKER, EDITOR.
From the Forget DE Not.
THE STEAM SHIP.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "cHARTLEY," &c.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "CHARTLEY," &c.
Amid the thousand wonders of the vast unqui-
ct sea
That covers half this pond'rous globe, there's
nothing like to thee,
Oh Steam Ship thou, who wakest, like a
lion reused from sleep,
With heart of fire, and rushest forth across the
angry deep!
Nought heedest thou the wind or tide; but
onward, night and day,
Unwearied as the waves around, thou march
est on thy way,
Where mighty ships lie all becalmed, with
sails that flap the mast
What boots TO thee their thousand guns!--thou
smiIest and walkest past.
They sail-and monsters of the deep are how
ering in their train:
But the great Leviathan himself might follow
thee in vain.
he lookest up in wonder on thy strange mys-
terious fight,
And the rapid whirring Of thy wings, hutter-
ing in liquid light;
HIS mighty heart is struck with awe, and, sink
ing, dark and slow,
a hundred fathom deep, he seeks his rocky
forts below:
And there, perchance, he dreams OF thee with
in his coral lair,
Scarce hoping that living thing may dwell
in open air.
Oh! thou art mighty on the wave fearful
power is thine.
For good or evil art thou formed-infe nal or
divine
IT'S thine to chase the pirate through his maze
of hundred isles;
To mark with scorn his shifting sails, despair,
and useless wiles;
IT'S thine TO tear him from his prey, TO beard
him in his den
Oh! thine might be blessed power among
the sons of men!
A vanguard leader, like the guide of Israel on
their way,
A living fire to cheer the night, moving
cloud by day.
Could mans ambition know control, could an
CRY passions cease,
Or, were thy venturous course confined within
the reign of peace,
Swift in thy flight, from shore to shore, from
dark TO sultry skies,
Welcomed vert thou, in every port, with shouts
and glisten'ng eyes.
A pledge of amity renewed each voyage then
would be,
As though the nations stretched and shook
their handS across the sea
IT'S sweet to stand upon thy deck, when the
wind is right ahead;
To mark thy foaming, roaring keel, and think
from whence thou'rt fed;
To feel thee rise upon the wave, breastng the
flying spray,
Then downward plunge and rise again, rejoic-
ing in the fray
or angry pillows, gathering round, like ioes TO
bar thy way,
While onward-onward-to thy port, thou
stemm'st their dark array.
And Oh! tits sweet, when all is cain, and blue
the sky and main,
To be with thee in solitude upon the liquid
plain
To see the setting sun decline i'll the frery
glowing west,
| eaving all else to dreams and sleep but thee
that need'st not rest.
How lovely glide the starry worlds all silently
on high,
While thou fest DER the dark blue wave, like
an arrow through the sky!
The visions then of youth revive, and the wiz
ards wondrous tale,
As borne along 'twixt heaven and earth, away
we seem 10 sail!
I've stood upon thy trembling deck, and felt thy
thrilling march,
Beneath the southern sultry skies and the
northern starlit arch;
I've been with thee in calm and storm, but
never in the fight;
And OH that war, that coming war, could
strip thee of thy might!
'Tis not for those all trained and armed upon
thy deck who stand,
Bloodier to make the distant strife and the
struggle hand TO hand
'Tis not for these who cheering rush to meet
the welcome foe,
And clasp the damp, cod hand Of death with
warm and friendly glow
But, for the dwellers on the shore-we dread
to think Of thee;
Oh! thy black banner, floating wild, fearful
thin will be!