The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-12-22
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BIT JOHN Q. wHTfffBH-
Leagues north, ~ ny the gun and aux,
Point Judith watches with eye Of hawk;
Leagues south, thy beacon flames, Montauk!
Lonely and wind shorn, wood forAkss,
With never q tree for spring to vaken,
For tyyst OF lovers fsrewelis taken,
Circled by waters that never freeze,
Beaten by bilow aud swept by breeze,
Lieth the Island Manisees.
90. AZ the mouth Of the sound to hold
The coast lights up on its turrets old,
Yellow with moss and sea fog mould.
Dresry the land when gust and sleet
Al its door. and windows howl and beat,
And Winter laughs At its fires Of peat
But in summer time. when POL and pond,
Held in the laps Of valleys fond,
Are blue as the glimpses of sea beyond;
when the hills are swee, with the brier rose,
And hid in the warm, soft dells, unclose
Flowers the mainland rarely knows;
When boats to their morning fishing 70,
And held to the wind and slanting low,
Whitening and darkening the small sails show
Then lie that lonely island fair;
And the pale health. seeker fndeth there
The wind of life in its pleasant air.
Ne greener valleys the sun invite,
On smoother beaches sea birds light,
No blue waves shatter to foam more white!
There crcing ever their narrow range,
Quaint tradition aud legend strange
Live unchallenged, and know no change.
Old wives spinning their webs OF tow,
Or rocking wierdly to and fro
In and out of the peat's dull glow,
And old men mendng their nets of Irvine,
Talk together of dream and sign,
Talk of the lost ship Palatine,-
The ship that hundred years before,
Freghted deep with its goodiy store,
In the gales of the equinox went ashore,
The eager islanders one by one
Counted the shots Of her signal gun,
And heard the crash when she drove right onl
Into the teeth OF death she sped
May God forgive the Hands that fed
The false light over the rocky Head .
men and brothers what sights were there!
White, up,urned faces, hands stretched in prayer
Where waves had pity, could ye not spare7
Down swooped the wreckers, like birds Of prey
Tearing the heart Of the ship away
And the dead had never q word to say.
Ana then, with CHASTITY simmer and shine
Over the rocks and the seething brine,
They burned the wreck OF the Palatine.
In their cruel hearts, IS they homeward sped,
" The and the rocks are dead" they said
There he no reckoning with the dead
But the year went round and when once more
Along their foam-white curves of shore
They beard the line storm rave and roar,
Behold, again. with simmer and shine,
Over the rocks and the secthing brine,
The flaming wreck Of the Paatinel
So. faply In filter words than these,
Mending their nets their patient knees
They tell the legend Of Manisees.
Nor looks nor tones doubt betrsy;
" Il is knowa 81 us all, - they quietly say;
" We too have seen IL in our day"
Is there. lien, no death for word once spoken
Was never a deed but left its token
Written on tablets never broken7
Do the elements subtle reflections give'
Do pictures q an the ages live
On Natures infinite negative,
Whence, half in sport, in malice half,
She sAos al times, with shudder or laugh,
Phantom and shadow in photograph
For still, many noonless night,
From Kingston Head and from Mentauk light
The spectre kiniles aud burns in sight.
Now low and dim. now clear and higher,
Leaps up the iherribie Ghost of Fire,
Then, slowly sinking, the flames expire.
And the wise Sound shippers, though skies be fine
Reef their sails when they see the sign
OF the blazing Ghost of the Palatinel
from The Atlantic -Hoathly Jor Jannary.