THE BEACON. THE scene was more beautiful far to my eye On the shadowy waves' playful motion, From the dim distant isle, where the beacon-fire blazed Like a star in the midst of the ocean. No longer the joy of the sailor-boy's breast Was heard in his wildly-breathed numbers: The sea-bird had flown to her wave-girdled nest, The fisherman sunk in his slumbers. One moment I looked from the hill's gentle slope, The time is long past, and the scene is afar, That blazed on the breast of the billow. ANONYMOUS. THE BELL AT SEA. 121 THE BELL AT SEA. The dangerous islet called the Bell-rock, on the coast of Forfarshire, used formerly to be marked only by a bell, which was so placed as to be swung by the motion of the waves, when the tide rose above the rock. A Lighthouse has since been erected there. WHEN the tide's billowy swell Far over cliff and surge, Swept the deep sound, Making each wild wind's dirge Yet that funereal tone The sailor blessed, Steering through darkness on With fearless breast. E'en so may we, that float Welcome each warning note, Stern though it be! MRS HEMANS. DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF THE BELL-ROCK LIGHTHOUSE. "Holding forth the word of life."-(PHIL. ii. 16.) I GAZED on thee when murky cloud But still aloft in calm or strife, I gazed on thee when cheering light And thou didst rise like blessed sprite, But still aloft in calm or strife, And thus, in Time's inconstant day, J. LONGMUIL THE INCHCAPE ROCK. 123 THE INCHCAPE ROCK. No stir in the air, no stir in the sea, Without either sign or sound of their shock The pious Abbot of Aberbrothock Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock; On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung, And over the waves its warning rung. When the Rock was hid by the surge's swell The sun in heaven was shining gay, All things were joyful on that day; The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen He felt the cheering power of Spring, But the Rover's mirth was wickedness. His eye was on the Inchcape Float; And I'll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothock." The boat is lowered, the boatmen row, Sir Ralph bent over from the boat, And he cut the Bell from the Inchcape Float. Down sunk the Bell with a gurgling sound, The bubbles rose and burst around; Quoth Sir Ralph, "The next who comes to the Rock Won't bless the Abbot of Aberbrothock." Sir Ralph the Rover sailed away, And now grown rich with plundered store, |