The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1862-03-12
McGREGOR, IOWA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH II, 1862
Poetry.
rhe Voyage Of the Good ship Union.
BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

BY OLIVER wENDELL HOLMES.
'Tis midnight through my troubled dream
Loud walls the tempets cry;
Before the gale, with tattered sails,
ship goes plunging by.
What name! Where bound s-The rocks around
Repeat the echoing cry,
The good ship Union, southwark bound:
God help her and her crew!
And is the old flag flying still
That DER your fat hers few,
With bands of white and rosy light,
And fields of starry blue?
Aye! look alott its folds full oft
Ilave braved the roaring blast
And still shall fly when from the sky
This black typhoon has past.
Speak, pilot Of the storm test bark!
May thy peril share |?
% landsman, these fearful seas
The brave alone may dare!
Nay ruler of the rebel deep,
W hat matters wind wave!
The rocks that wreck your reeng deck
Will leave me naught to save!
o landsman. art thou false or truc2
What sign hast thou to show.
The crimson stains from loyal veins
That hold my heart-blo flow!
Enough! what more shall homer claim?
know the sacred sign:
Above thy head our flag shall spread,
Our ocean path be thine!
The bark sails on the Pilgrims Cape
Lies low along her lee,
Whose hcadlands crooks its anchored fukes
To look the shore and sea.
No treason here it cost too dear
To win this barren realm!
Ard true and free the hands must be
That holds the whaler's helm!
Still on! Manhattan's narrowing bay
No rebel cruiser scars
Her waters feel no pirates keel
That Haunts the fallen stars!
But watch the light on yonder height
All, pilot. have a carel
Some lingering cloud in mist may shgoud
The Capes Of Delaware!
Say, pilot, what this fort may be,
Whose sentineis look down
From moated walls that show the sea
Their deep emhrasures' frown!
The rebel host claims all the coast,
But these are friends We know,
Whose footprints spoil the "sacred SOIL"
And this is Fort Monroe!
The breakers roar--how bears the shore,
The traitorous wreckers' hands
lave quenched the blaze that poured its rays
Along the iIatteras sands.
lila! say not so I see its glow,
Again the shoals display
The beacon light that shines by night,
The Union Stars by day.
The good ship flies to milder skies,
The wave more gently flows,
The softening breeze watts DER the seas
The breath of Beauiort's rose.
What fold j. this the sweet winds kiss,
Fdir-.trped aud many-starred,
Whose shadow pals the orphaned walls,
The twins of Beaaregard?
What heard you not Port Royals doomt
How the black war-ships came
And turned the Bcauforts roses bloom
To redder wreaths OF flame?
How from fsebe.lion's hrooken reed
Wessw his emblem iall,
And soon his cursed poison-weed
Shall drop from Sumpters wall
On! on /! Puaski's iron hail
Falls harmless on Tybee!
Her topsas feel the freshenng gale
She strikes the open
She rounds the point, she threads the keys
That guard the L.ud Of Flowers,
And rides at last where firm and last
Iler own Gibraltar towers.
The good ship Unions voyage is DER,
At anchor safe she swings,
And loud and clear with cheer on cheer
Her joyous welcome rings:
llurrah! lIurrah! it shakes the wave.
1t thandcrs on the Shore
One dag, one land, one heart, one hand,
One NatiCn, evermone
Ahaatic Monthly for Narel