Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.

Spithead

Lines Written at Spithead

By George Croly (1780–1860)

HARK to the knell!

It comes on the swell

Of the stormy ocean wave;

’T is no earthly sound,

But a tale profound

From the mariner’s deep-sea grave.

When the billows dash,

And the signals flash,

And the thunder is on the gale;

And the ocean is white

With its own wild light,

Deadly and dismal and pale.

When the lightning’s blaze

Smites the seaman’s gaze,

And the sea rolls in fire and in foam;

And the surge’s roar

Shakes the rocky shore,

We hear the sea-knell come.

There ’neath the billow,

The sand their pillow,

Ten thousand men lie low;

And still their dirge

Is sung by the surge,

When the stormy night-winds blow.

Sleep, warriors! sleep

On your pillow deep

In peace! for no mortal care,

No art can deceive,

No anguish can heave,

The heart that once slumbers there.