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BAMBOROUGH CASTLE.

BAMBOROUGH CASTLE.

YE holy Towers that shade the wave-worn steep,
Long may ye rear your aged brows sublime,
Though, hurrying silent by, relentless Time
Assail you, and the winds of winter sweep
Round your dark battlements; for, far from halls
Of Pride, here Charity hath fixed her seat,
Oft listening, tearful, when the tempests beat
With hollow bodings round your ancient walls;
And Pity, at the dark and stormy hour

Of midnight, when the moon is hid on high,
Keeps her lone watch upon the topmost tower,
And turns her ear to each expiring cry;
Blessed if her aid some fainting Seaman save,
And snatch him cold and speechless from the wave.
W. L. BOWLES.

THE SHIP.

"Build me straight, O worthy Master,

Staunch and strong, a mighty vessel,

That shall laugh at all disaster,

And with wave and whirlwind wrestle !"

Longfellow.

The Ship.

INVENTION OF SHIPS.

By viewing Nature, Nature's handmaid Art Makes mighty things from small beginnings

grow:

Thus fishes first to shipping did impart

Their tail the rudder, and their head the prow.

Some log, perhaps, upon the waters swam,
An useless drift, which, rudely cut within
And hollowed, first a floating trough became,
And cross some rivulet passage did begin.

In shipping such as this, the Irish kern,

And untaught Indian, on the stream did glide, Ere sharp-keeled boats to stem the flood did learn, Or fin-like oars did spread from either side.

Add but a sail, and Saturn so appeared,
When from lost empire he to exile went,

And with the golden age to Tiber steered, Where coin and commerce first he did invent.

Rude as their ships was navigation then;

No useful compass or meridian known; Coasting, they kept the land within their ken, And knew no North but when the Pole-star shone.

Of all who since have used the open sea,

Than the bold British none more fame have won; Beyond the year, and out of heaven's highway, They make discoveries where they see no sun! DRYDEN.

THE ARK.

AT length a reverend sire among them came,
And of their doings great dislike declared,
And testified against their ways; he oft
Frequented their assemblies, whereso met,
Triumphs or festivals, and to them preached
Conversion and repentance, as to souls
In prison under judgments imminent.

But all in vain; which, when he saw, he ceased
Contending, and removed his tents far off:
Then, from the mountain hewing timber tall,
Began to build a vessel of huge bulk,