MAGICIAN

THOU dark, sea-stirring storm,

Whence comest thou in thy might —

Nay — wait, thou dim and dreamy form —

Storm spirit, I call thee — ’t is mine of right —

Arrest thee in thy troubled flight.

STORM SPIRIT

Thou askest me whence I came —

I came o’er the sleeping sea,

It roused at my torrent of storm and flame,

And it howled aloud in its agony,

And swelled to the sky — that sleeping sea.

 

Thou askest me what I met —

A ship from the Indian shore,

A tall proud ship with her sails all set —

Far down in the sea that ship I bore,

My storms wild rushing wings before.

 

And her men will forever lie,

Below the unquiet sea;

And tears will dim full many an eye, [page 157:]

Of those who shall widows and orphans be,

And their days be years — for their misery.

 

A boat with a starving crew —

For hunger they howled and swore;

While the blood from a fellow's veins they drew

I came upon them with rush and roar —

Far under the waves that boat I bore.

 

Two ships in a fearful fight —

When a hundred guns did flash

I came upon them — no time for flight —

But under the sea their timbers crash

And over their guns the wild waters dash

 

A wretch on a single plank —

And I tossed him on the shore —

A night and a day of the sea he drank,

But the wearied wretch to the land I bore —

And now he walketh the earth once more —

MAGICIAN

Storm spirit — go on thy path —

 

The spirit has spread his wings —

And comes on the sea with a rush of wrath,

As a war horse when he springs —

And over the earth his winds he flings —

And over the earth — nor stop nor stay —

The winds of the storm king go out on their way.

P——