Lines Suggested by the Wreck of the Minot Ledge Lighthouse

On the rock, a beacon lighted,
Shone upon the stormy wave;
There to guide the bark, benighted:
Home of those, the true and brave.
Clouds of wrath the skies are veiling,
Danger, wreck, and death are nigh;
Lone and wild, the sea-bird’s wailing
As the storm-wind whistles by.PSAS 109.3

Tempests rave-fierce roars the ocean,
Higher swells and angry foam;
Winds and waves in wild commotion,
Fearful rock their storm-tossed home.
Night of anguish, wo and sorrow,
Wrapt in midnight’s pall of gloom,
Gleams no light upon the morrow,
Dark beneath a watery tomb.PSAS 110.1

Hark! the bell is loudly ringing
With a deep, and solemn wail.
Death-like knells around are flinging,
In the wild, terrific gale.
Still, the beacon-light is flashing,
None could reach them from the shore.
Towering waves, in fury dashing,
They must sink to rise no more.PSAS 110.2

Wrecks along the shore are lying,
On the heaving surges tossed;
Mournful winds and waves are sighing,
Ocean’s requiem for the lost;
Mighty dome, by tempest shattered,
Billows o’er thee darkly sweep,
Treasure far more precious, scattered
In the bosom of the deep.PSAS 110.3

Far beneath the rolling billow,
Sleep the noble, young and brave;
Ocean’s coral bed their pillow,
And their shroud, the foamy wave;
Wreck or monument, may never
Point the fatal rock, swept bare;
But enshrined in memory, ever,
Faithful hearts that perished there.PSAS 110.4