WATCHMAN OF THE NIGHT

Evening Star, Issue 16263, 4 November 1916, Page 12

WATCHMAN OF THE NIGHT

Lords of the seas' great wilderness, The light-grey warships cut the wind; The headland dwindles less and less; The great waves, breaking, drench and blind The stern-faced watcher on the deck, While England fadfcs into a speck. Afar on that horizon grey The sleepy homesteads one by one Shine with their cheerful lights as day Dies in the valley and ia >*one, While the great moon comes o'er the hill And floods the landscape, white and still. But outward 'mid the homeless waste The battle-fleet held on its way; On either sidt the torn seas raced, Over the bridge blew up the spray; The quartermaster at tho wheel Steered through tho right his ship of steel. Once from a masthead blinked a light The Admiral spoke unto the Fleet; Swift answers flashed along the night, The chart house -,-limmered through the sleet; A bell rang from the engine room, And ere it ceased—the great guns boom! Then thunder through the silence broke And rolled along the sullen deep; A hundred guns flashed fire and spoke, Which England heard not in her sleep, Nor dreamed of, while her fighting sons Fed and fired the blazing guns. Dawn broke in England, sweet and clear; Birds in the brake, the lark in heaven Made musical the morning air: But distant, shattered, scorch••d, and riven Gathered the ships—a,y, ('awn was well After night's red and'-raging hell. But .some came not with break of ii<;lit, Nor looked upon tho saffron dawn; They keep the watch ofondlc-s Xi-llt, On the soft breast of ocean borne. O waking England, rise and pray For sou; who guard thee night and day! —Cecil .Roberts, in ' Poetry Review.'