Classic Poem

Serenely sailing on far, treacherous seas,
I slumbered, dreaming of my mother's smiles,
While gently urged by the Sumatran breeze,
We passed green groups of hazy, palm-thronged isles.

I heard the hissing horror of the storm
That spent its fury on our helpless barque,
And, thro' the enormous night, I saw a form
Of leering lightning shock! then all was dark.

Dazzled and stunned, to sure destruction hurled,
I awoke, mid dizzy billows, bruised, alone,
Lost in a moaning hell, a watery world,
The tortured buffet of the grim Cyclone.

For dolorous hours one paltry spar and frail,
Gave ease to rigid hands and panting breath;
I felt the weakness of each muscle fail,
In clamorous darkness I awaited death.

But, as I felt its icy fingers creep
Upon me, tossed there like some worthless chaff,
No pang of terror made me pray or weep,
But the wild tempest heard my grander laugh.

For I, about to die, in shroud of foam,
Whose carrion in blue voids would leave no path,
Thought of the churchyard worms in my far home,
And how defrauded they would writhe in wrath!