The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-05-19
" THE FOG BELL"
By STEPHEN X. MALLORY.

By STEPHEN X hALLphI'
ollinp. tolIiug tolling whore the lazy bows rolling.
Sweep mrjsstic ally on ward to the Shore
Hear tho solemn knell of that lonely warden Bell
There's o melancholy spell in its ceaseless sink ana
swell
As we catch it mid the breakers sulen roar.
There's warning in its tone. not unlike q sigh or
As the sour d comes waited to the air;
But echoes to borrow only sottenea ho'eS u
sorrow,
While its deep voice murmurs monrnfully, beware
sn too muoh of grief that guardian of the reef.
And the menace in it's tone has long since hedi
And that iron throat so lusty has now grown hoarse
and rusty,
And its toling seems to whisper of the dead
Yes yon rusty Bell rocked upon the Oceans SWELL
Could it sps ak. might tell III ,itng tales of woe;
Tales long changed the gladness in its merry
tones to sadness
Tales OF misery and madness, which The wild waves
only know.
1t could tell Of mpests dark. how they swept the
straining bark
All Unconscious toward that rugged coral strand;
How the fated scornng needed not its solemn
warning,
How the misty light Of morning slowly struggled to its
dawnipg,
And disclosed a shattered wreck upon tho sand
could
spare,
that strife of air sea fell sad and low
How above the thunder's growing cen above the
tempest's bowling,
Came the shrieks of sea birds prowliDg dismal uon
tors of woe.
BY the Hghtnings dizzy flight it rent the cloak of
night.
Was revealed sight which frozs that iron tongue;
As sister oasped brother her bright babe fair
And two lovers each the other, seeking thus their
pain to smother,
While the moaning winds their funeral dirges sung
And the forms of strong there living statues
despair.
By that dazzling glare pictured to the sight;
Fer too we'll they heard the knelling of that Fog
Bell" wildly telling
OF the dangers hid within that gloom of night
Again the ghtulngs sees that stout ship onward
dash.
While the foami n breakers the moaning shore
Was that sound the sea bird crying TWAS q long
shrek slowly dying,
But wind is stilled and signing and the thunders
hushed its
No. shrisk clearly heard, not Of the wild
seabird.
And twas sadder than the sephyr's dying strain
In the storms hush it wiz giDg Ger the waters
family bringing
The despair and heart ache snging of poor mortals
feebly cnging
To this lifs Of feeting joy and certain pain.
But that Bell, throughout the night each moment
winged its flight,
Rung its melancholy peal upon the air.
As wien passions angry suIge drives US over Elm .
dark verge,
There are voices that urge, with their low but
oeaseless dree,
Remonstrance in the whirpered word, " Forbear."
'Fsrbear" alas I" Forbear !" what a weight such
words declare,
When too late we hearken to their warning tonei
In that Bells voice. sad and frghted, there hints
of bright hopes bli2hted,
OF sweet vows, once fOndly plighted-now forgotten
and unknown.
There's meath the wave, where the breakers
storm and rave.
There are green mounds just above the sandy shore
As the sad creeping DER the waves now
calmly sleeping,
There's sou nd voices weeping, voices never heard
before.
Tolng tolling toipG where the lazy bllows rolling
Sweep majestcay on ward to The shores
Hear the solemn knell of that lonely warden Bell!
There's melancholy spell in its oeaIeless sink and
swell,
AS we catch it mid the breskers' sullen