Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. The Book of New York Verse. 1917.
Hoboken, 1825Robert Stevenson Coffin
T
The skiff of false honour, deep freighted and strong;
And the sceptre of murder its helm is bestriding,
While the fiends of false friendship propel it along.
Nor heed they the night-bird that screams through the air,
And proclaims that e’er long o’er a corse shall be waving
The high knotty pine, the thorn, and the briar.
The friend of his murderer hath sunk to the earth;
And the skiff from the beach is full quickly receding,
While the fate of true friendship’s their subject of mirth.
While the dæmons of darkness dance light o’er the ground;
And the grim fiends of hell for the murderer are twining
The flowers of the nightshade his temples around.