The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-03-21
from the N. Y. Home Journal
HATTERAS.
BY JOS. w. HOLDEN.

BY JOS. W. HOLDEN.
The Wind King from the North came down
Nor stopped by river, mount or town;
But, like boisterous god at play,
Rcsist.ess bounding on his way,
He shook the lake and tore the wood,
And tapped his wings in merry mood,
Nor fured them, till he spicd afar
The white-caps flash on Hatteras bar,
Where fierce Atlantic landward bowls
Der treacherous sands and hidden shoals.
He paused, then wreathed his horn of cloud,
And blew defiance long and loud.
Come up! Come up. thou torrid god,
That rul'st the Southern Sea
Ho lightning eyed and thunder-shod,
Come wrestle here with mel
AS tosscst thou the tangled cane,
I'll hurl thee DER the boiling main!"
The angry Heavens hung dark and still,
Like Arctic night on Hecia's hill;
The mermaids sporting on the waves
Affrighted, fled to coral caves:
The biliow checked its curling crest,
And, trembling, sank to sudden rest;
All ocean stilled its heaving breast.
Reflected darkness, weird and dread,
An inkv plain the waters spread
So motlonless, since life was fled
Amid this elemental lull
When nature died, and death lay dull,
A" though itself were sleeping there
Becalmed upon that dismal flood,
Fen fated vessels idly stood,
And not a timber cracked!
Dim silence held each hollow hull,
Save when some sailor, in that night,
Oppressed with darkness and despair,
Some seaman, CROPPING for the light,
Rose up and shrieked!
They cried like children lost and lorn:
" Oh, Lord, deliver while you mayi
Sweet Jesus, drive this gloom away!
Forever fled, oh lovely day?
1 would that 1 were never bornI''
For stoutcst souls were terror thrilled,
And warmest hearts with horror chilled!
g Come up! Come up, thou torrid god,
Thou lightning eyed and thunder-shod,
And wrestle here with me,'
Twas heard, and answered: 10! come
From azure Carri5ee,
To drive thee, covering, to thy home,
And melt its walls of frozen foamr'
From every isle and mountain dell,
From plains of painless chapparel,
From t;de-built bars, where se;t-birds dwell,
He drew his lurid legions forth
Then Sprang to meet the white-plumcd
North.
Can mortal tongue in song convey
The fury of that fearful fray2
How ships were splintered at blow
Sails shivered into shreds of snow
And seamen hurled to death below!
Two gods, commlngling bolt and blast,
The huge waves on each other cast,
And beloved DER the raging waste;
Then sped, like harnessed steeds, afar,
That drag shattered battle car
Amid the midnight din of war!
False Hatteras when the Cyclone came,
Your waves leapt up with hoarse acclaim,
And ran and wrecked yon argosy!
For e'er nine sank that lone hulk stands,
Embedded in thy yellow sands
An hundred hearts in death there stilled -
And yet its ribs, with corpscs filed,
Are now caressed by thee!
Smile on, smile on, thou watery hell,
And toss those skulls upon thy shore;
The sailors widow knows thee well,
His children beg from door to door,
And shiver, while they strive to tell
How thou hast robbed the wretched poor!
Yon lipless skull shall speak for me:
" This is Golgotha of the sea
And its keen hunger is the same
In winters frost, or summers flame!
When life was young, adventure sweet,
[ came with Walter Raleigh's fleet,
And here my scattered bones have lain
And bleached for ages by the main
Though lonely once, strange folk have come,
Till peopled is my barren home.
Enough are here! Oh, heed the cry,
Ye white-winged strangers sailing by!
The bark that fingers on this wave
Will find it smiling but grave!
Then, tardy mariner, turn and flee,
A myriad wrecks are on thy lee
With swelling sail and sloplng mast,
Accept kind Heavens propitious blast!
Oh, ship, sail on Oh, ship, sail fast,
Fill thou-Golgotha's quicksands past
Hast gained the open sea at last !''
Del. IL N