Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-03-27
A TRYST.


An iceberg took IFS way,
From its OBTAINING comrades breaking forth
And travelling night and day.
Al whose command? Who babe it sail the deep
With that resistlcss force?
Who made the Gread appointment il must keep,
Who traced lis awful course?
To the warm airs that stir in the sweet South
a good ship spread her sails;
Stately she passed beyond the harbor's mouth
Chased by the favoring gales
And on her ample decks happy crowd
Babe the fair land gooi-by;
Clear shone the day, with not single cloud
IN ali the pc lceful sky.
Brave men, sweet women, little children bright,
For all these she made room,
And with her freight of beauty and delight
She went TO meet her doom.
Storms huaeted the iceberg, spray was swept
Across its loftieSt hight;
Guided alike by storm and calm il kept
It's fatal path Alright.
base,
As If in piteOuS plea:
The ardent sun sent slow tears down its face,
Soft flowing to the sea.
Dawn kissed it with her tender rose tints, Eve
BGthed il in violet,
The wistiul color er il oemed to grieVe
With divine regret.
And shadowy dream,
or Night through lonely spaces saw il swim
White in the mo0nlight's glealn
Ever Death rode upon its solemn nights.
Ever his watch he kept;
Cold at its heart through changing days and
nights
Itschangeless purpose slept
And where afar smiling coast it passed.
Stralghtway the air grew chill;
Dwellers thereon perceived a bitter blast,
vague report of i'll.
Like some imperial creature, moving slow.
Meanwhile, with matches grace,
The stately ship, unconscious of her foe
Drew near the trystiDg-place
For still the prosperous breezes followed her.
And half the voyage was DER
In many breast glad thoughts began to stir
OF lards that lay before,
And human hearts with longing love were
dumb
That soon should cease to beat
Thrilled with the hope of meetings soon to
come,
And lost in memories sweet.
Was not the weltering waste of wafer wide
Enough for both to sail?
what drew the two together DER the tide
Fair ship and iceberg pale?
There came night with neither moon nor star.
Clouds draped the sky in black
win nutterlng canvas reefed at every spar
And weird fire in her track
The ship went on wild wind gathering fast
Drove her at utmost speed
Bravely she bent before the titfIll blast
That shook her like Il reed
o helmsman, turn thy wheel, Will no su1mise
Cleave through the midnight drear?
No warning of the horrible surprise
Reach thine unconscious ear?
She rushed upon her ruin Not a. flash
Broke up the waiting dark
Duly through wind and sea one awful crash
sounded, with none to mark
Scarcely her crew had time to clutcb desn.;r
So swift the work was done:
Ere their pale lips could frame 1 speechless
prayer
They persisted, every one
1t was recited with a good deal of ex
preston by Mr.. Page. \ gentleman pres
ent asked Lieutenant Greedy how he ac-
counted for the men preferring this sweet
but melancholy poem to cheerful themes
to which he replied that the men-oyer-
come by the long, dark DAYS of the Arctic
winter, the intense silence, the barrenness
and desolation of nature, and depressed bv
want OF nourlshment, seeing in each others
faces the palor of starvation and death
became extremely morbid and RETROSPECT
i've, realizing more keenly day by dav
mans utter incompetency to battle with
nature, especially the form of it thew were
called to encounter there. Icebergs were
to them fearful reality, and for his own
part, the Lieutenant added he could not
u derstand how woman like Mrs. Thax-
ter, who had never seen one, should have
chosen this subject for theme and treated
it with such realism = Correspondent
Philadelphia Press.