Sordino’s mind sank into gloomy night,
As time grew heavy with a voyage long;
He brooded on the past, and as he did,
It seemed that shadows all its sunshine hid;
And sickness, too, did make the man, once strong,
Feel aged, worthless, and in awful plight.
The story by the midshipman did linger
Upon his heart, increasing spectral-like,
Awaking sympathy, for he did see
In Mary’s life the gathered misery
Of many storms which ’gainst her soul did strike,
And on a dark and hopeless deep did bring her.
The greatest souls must bear the greatest pain,
And sometimes sweetness turns to bitterness,
And they who for the heights have been appointed,
And by the gods or fates have been anointed,
Must know the “Welt-smertz” of the vintage press,
And tread it all alone, may be in vain.
Thus did he meditate, and pleasure found
In philosophic musings, day by day;
But this was unknown to the hardy crew,
Who melancholy with their laughter slew,
They liked him not, and wished him out of way,--
Well that he had the captain to him bound.
Alas, to him the Chimes of life were lost!
And that they ever rang seemed but a dream;
The boist’rous elements of sea and air
Enveloped him, but little did he care,
Since death itself a friend to him did seem,--
Of all things weary, sick and tempest-tost.
But in such hours, whene’er the boy drew near,
Whom he did love, a light shone in his eyes,
And he did speak to him so tenderly
As any parent, which did set him free
From painful broodings and the low’ring skies,
And mid the deepest darkness brought him cheer.