Down upon our seaward light,
Swept by all the winds that blow,
Birds come reeling in their flight--
(_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_)
Petrels tossing on the gale,
Falcons daring sleet and hail,
Curlews whistling high and far,
Waifs that cross the harbor bar
Borne from isles we do not know--
(_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_)
Round our island haven blest
Waves like drifted mountain snow
Break from out the shoreless West--
(_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_)
Cast ashore a broken spar
Born beneath some alien star,
Broken, beaten by the wave--
In what far-off unknown grave
Lie the hands that shaped it so?
(_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_)
Sails upon the gray world's edge
Like mute phantoms come and go,--
Life and honor men will pledge--
(_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_)
For the pearls and gems and gold
That the burning Indies hold.
Or the Guinea coast they dare
With its fever-poisoned air
For the slaves they capture so
(_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_)
In our chamber small to-night,
Fair as love's immortal glow,
Shines our silver censer-light--
(_Ay de mi, Cristofero_!)
What is this that holds thee fast
In old histories of the past?
Put the time-stained parchments by,
Men have sought where dead men lie
For the secret thou wouldst know--
All too long, Cristofero!