The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1867-04-02
from the N. Y. Home Journal
HATTERAS. .f

BY JOS W. HOLDEN OF RALEIGH, N. G.
The Wind King from the North came down
Nor stopped by river, moaBt or town. ...
| But, like boisterous god at play, =
| Resistless bounding on his way,
| He shook the lake and tore the wood, .-
And tapped his wings in merry mood,
| Nor furied them. till he spied afar
| The white caps flash on Hatteras bar,
Where fierce Atlantic landward bowls
! Ger treacheroas sands and hidden shoals
He paused, then wreatbed his horn of cloud,
And blew defiance long aod loud.
"Come up! Come up. thou torrid god, -....
That rupst the Southern Sea!
Ho! lightning eyed and thunder shod,
Come wrestle here with me!
As tossest thou the tangled cane, ... ST.
I'll hurl thee DER the boiling main!'
The angry Heavens hung dark and still, ..
Like Arctic night on Heclas hill; .
The mermaids sporting 90 the waves ...
Afrighted, fed to coral caves:
The billow checked it's curling crest,
And, trembling, sank to sudden rest;
All ocean stilled it's heaving breast.
Reflected darkness, weird and dread, Pc
An inkv plain the waters spread
So motionless, since life was fed!
Amid this elemental lulI
When nature died, and death lay dull, ...-
AS though itself were sleeping there
Becalued upon that dismal food, .
Ten fated vessels idly stood, ...- . ..--
And not a timber creaked! ...
Dim silence held each hollow hull,
Save when some sailor, in that night,
Oppressed with darkness and despair, D..
Some seaman, cropping for the light, .
Rose up and shrieked! ....
They cried like children lost and lorn:
"Oh, Lord, deliver while you nay! ...
Sweet Jesus, drive this gloom away. ....
Forever fed, oh lovely day?
[ would that were never borni"
For stoutest souls were terror thrilled,
And warmest hearts with horror chilled!
Come up Come up, thou torrd god, . .
Thou hghtning-eyed an9 thunder-shod, 70.
And wrestIe here with me !"
Twas heard and answered "Lo! come
From azure Carrbee, ..- -r...
To drive thee, covering, 20 thy home, F..
And melt It's walls of frozen foam !"
From every isle and mountain cell,
From plains Of pathless chapparel,
From tide-built bars, where sea-birds dwell,
lie OfeW MS Iurld leglOES forth
Then sprang to meet the white-plumed North.
Can mortal tongue in song convey
The fury of that fearful fray?
How ships were splin;ered at blow
Sails shivered into shreds Of snow
And seamen hurled to death below!
Two gods, commingling bolt and blast,
The huge waves on each other cast,
And beloved DER the raging waste;
Then sped, like harnes<ed steeds, afar,
That drag a shattered battle car
Amid the midnight din ofwar!
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 corpses filled,
Are now carressed 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 Raeighs fleet,
And here my scattered bones have lain
And benched 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,
fe whie-wine,ed strangers, sailing by
The bark that fingers this wave
Will find it smiling but grave!
Then, tardy mariner, turn and flee,
A yriad wrecks are on the lee!
With swelling sail and sloping mast,
Accept kind Heavens propitious blast
Oh, ship, sail on? Oh, ship sail fast,
Till thou-Golgotha's qucksands past
Hast gained The open sea at last !"
Roieigh, " G., 1867.
II q