A DREAM AT SEA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1540, 14 May 1881, Page 24

A DREAM AT SEA.

[Written in reply to a letter from a fair relative of a passenger who was drowned in the Wreck of the Tararua, April, 1881.] Dearest Dora ! to remembrance nearest.! r I've read your record, kissed it, and re-read it, With grief I've stained it, and with love Ive chained it „-,.. Within my memory, and with love I've fed it. The tears will fall and mingle with the ink, loveWhen fatal shadows on our spirits sink, loveWhen from the past ouv weeping souls do shrink, Jove. But Hope's young ej c allied to Mem'ry's ray May yet revive the light of yesterday— Albeit Love's chain is rent in twain. And hope, in vain pursues the missing link, love. While lately sitting in the midnight gloom, A rush of water seemed to flood my room— The deep impression which your letter made _ Built up the dream which came with evening's shade. And in my dream I saw or thought I spied The face of one who in a sea-grave died ; And ere she sank within the briny surge She, swan-like, sang this melancholy dirge :— Tub Sigh op a Sinking Soul. " Nobody saves me ! nobody cares For sighs or for tears, for fears or for prayers. Alone on the ocean ! my heart is a void ! A tenantlcss shrine, and only employed In hearing the wailings, whose discords do jar On the pulses of feeling as frost on a star. As frost on a rose, as ice on a rill. Oh ! merciful heaven ! how awful, how chill Is life without sympathy, hearts without joy, Souls void of sunshine. Is Being a toy 1 A feather, by Destiny toss'd on Life's beach ? An apple of Discord ? A core-rotten peach ? A grape full of blushes, but veiling vile Death In the wine that runs through it 1 Are mortals mere breath Embodied in dust, which dies when the blast Of the temple of Destiny buries the past 1" I heard no more, for as she sang, a wave Received the singer in its nameless grave. Gentle Angels, bless with tears, Tararua's rolling biers. The dream still floated through my sleep, I gazed within the dim, dim deep, And pearls rare, and sea-snakes' eyes Did seem to 'lumine c'en the skies And by their glow I saw below The refuge drear of human woe. Vile, green-eyed monsters seized my limbs, And hungered for my eyes ; And fallen mermaids seized my hands And quarrelled for the prize. And all my follies in the past | Their records did unroll— "Oh ! Heavens ! let me sink !" I shriek, " Unpained by Memory's scroll." My sins assumed a real shape, And glided on the waves ; As in a mirror I perceived A million wandering graves ! Remorse, whose plume was liko a sting, Revenue, of crime the very king, Treachery, armed with stone and sling, Affrighted all my senses. The chart of all my crimes I saw In all their moods and tenses ! As in a camera, I observed My guilt illumed by lenses. The panorama of my lifeIts vice, its joy, its smiles, its strife, And God appeared, and to my gaze | Revealed all false pretences. A baby's corpse disturbed my dream And filled the scene with sadness ! "Oh, God!" I sighed, " that angel-soul Once filled some home with gladness." Its frozen fingers seemed to clutch My own, and bless them with its touch. I saw the Feu- Fiend in his lair— I saw Hope strangled by Despair ; The Terror King embraced the wave, And made each sinking heart his slave. And I dreamed of childhood's glee, Far from ocean's treachery ; All my cherished youthful schemes Revived again within my dreams. As I did sleep upon the deep I saw a heart in motion ; It moved upon a sea bird's wing, | Methought I heard that sea bird sing : ! " She'll never wed her sailor love On this side of the ocean ;" " It is her heart," I sadly said, " She mourns for her love dead. She grieves for him who's wrapped in sleep, Whose couch is in the slimy deep." She weeps, and prays, and sighs, and oh, , My spirit trembles 'neath its woe, The sighs ivill vent, the tears viill flow, Oh I gentle Jesus, mercy shew. ! And in my vision I did see > Thab heart embrace eternity. A dripping oloth did cover o'er j A sei.rn.Oß9 covered stone-. j i And m tins cIQtU \m tml, Ob, CM I '

I heard a sudden moan ; A father shrieked in accents wild— For there, alas, he saw his child 1 Horror seized his quivering lip, The infant was his own ; Oh, God ! I'll ne'er forget that cry, So wretched was its tone. Echo reproduced his yell, It sounded like a fatal knell, 'Twas weird, 'twas awful wild, He sobbed, he staggered, knelt, and fell, And shrieked again " My child." United couples braved the waves, And never parted in the brine I They sank like fettered galley slaves, And realised that " mine is thine." II My husband, darling, we'll not part, In death we'll face the woes to be I" " Cling, my own one, to my heart, As ivy clings to oaken tree. Let ocean, cruel, if it can, Separate the wife from man, Sever, never will we now, In death we'll keep the marriage vow ;" With words like these they braved the deep, And in love's fetters sought Death's sleep. A maiden's body floated by, It trembled in the blast so keen ; Her age, methought it was sixteen— Methought I heard her farewell sigh— Methought she said, "I die, I die !" I searched in vain her eyes to spy— I saw two holes where eyes had been— The sharks upon their glories fed ; And in the sockets seaweed green Appeared, mixed up with mosses red ; II Oh, God !" I sighed, " the maid is dead 1" A wave soon swept her from the scene, But left behind the sea weed green, " Good-bye, good-bye," I gently said, She did not speak, for life had fled. A woman's hand, 'twas small and fair, Then floated past like thing of air, And passing seemed to clasp my hair, No human creature claimed it. A petrel perched upon the palm, The dead hand seemed to tame it ; A ring enclasped a finger pale, And lent its lustre to the gale. Shrieking wretches, seamen's screams Amazed my brain, and wrecked my dreams ; My visions fled, I woke and found My feet on solid dreamless ground. But still the horrors of that night Assail my soul with sad affright ; For well I know the dreams despised, Have been too sadly realised— God grant that mercy's gentle ray May gladden souls made sad to-day. Michael Wilmam Stack.