Outward Bound

FAREWELL! for now a stormy morn and dark
     The hour of greeting and of parting brings;
Already on the rising wind yon bark
             Spreads her impatient wings. [650][651]

Too hasty keel, a little while delay!
     A moment tarry, O thou hurrying dawn!
For long and sad will be the mourners’ day
             When their beloved is gone.

But vain the hands that beckon from the shore:
     Alike our passion and our grief are vain.
Behind him lies our little world: before
             The illimitable main.

Yet, none the less, about his moving bed
     Immortal eyes a tireless vigil keep—
An angel at the feet and at the head
             Guard his untroubled sleep.

Two nations bowed above a common bier,
     Made one forever by a martyred son—
One in their agony of hope and fear,
             And in their sorrow one.

And thou, lone traveller of a waste so wide,
     The uncharted seas that all must pass in turn,
May the same star that was so long thy guide
             O’er thy last voyage burn.

No eye can reach where through yon sombre veil
     That bark to its eternal haven fares;
No earthly breezes swell its shadowy sail:
             Only our love and prayers.