Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Americas: Vol. XXX. 1876–79.

British America: Labrador

Off Labrador

By Thomas Stephens Collier (1842–1893)

THE STORM-WIND moans through branches bare;

The snow flies wildly through the air;

The mad waves roar, as fierce and high

They toss their crests against the sky.

Dark and desolate lies the sand

Along the wastes of a barren land;

And rushing on, with sheets flung free,

A ship sails down from the northern sea.

With lips pressed hard the helmsman stands,

Grasping the spokes with freezing hands,

While white the reef lies in his path,

Swept by an ocean full of wrath.

The surf-roar in the blast is lost;

The foam-flakes by the wild wind tost

High up in air, no warning show,

Hid by the driving mass of snow.

With sudden bound and sullen grate,

The brave ship rushes to her fate,

And splintered deck and broken mast

Make homage to the roaring blast.

Amid the waves float riven plank,

And rope and sail with moisture dank;

And faces gleaming stern and white

Shine dimly in the storm-filled night.

By some bright river far away,

Fond hearts are wondering where they stay

Who sleep along the wave-washed shore

And stormy reefs of Labrador.