TO THE

FIGURE-HEAD OF "THE FOAM."

I.

CALM Sculptured image of as sweet a face
As ever lighted up an English home,-
Whose mute companionship has deign'd to grace
Our wanderings o'er a thousand leagues of foam,—

Our

II.

progress was your triumph duly hailed
By ocean's inmates; herald dolphins played
Before our stem, tall ships that sunward sailed
With stately curtseys due obeisance paid.

III.

Fair Fortune's fairer harbinger! you smooth'd
Our way before us, through the frantic fling
Of roystering waves-as once Athene sooth'd
The deeps that raged around the wandering King;

IV.

The scowling tempest rose in vain to clutch

His forked bolts; you smiled,—they harmless turned

To sheets of splendour at his palsied touch,
And all their anger perished ere it burned.

V.

Now tinkling waves a peal of welcome rang
Against the sheathing of our brazen bows,—
No gladder hymn the rosy Nereids sang,
When, clad in sunshine, Aphrodite rose.

VI.

Anon, a mightier passion stirr'd the deep-
Presumptuous billows scaled the quivering deck;

Up to your very lips would dare to leap,

And fling their silver arms about your neck;

VII.

The uncouth winds stole kisses from your cheek,
Then, wild with exultation, hurried on,
And boasting bade their laggard comrades seek
The momentary bliss themselves had won,

VIII.

Who, following, filled our prosperous sails until
We reached eternal winter's drear domain,

Where suns of June but frozen light distil,

And, baffled, quickly abdicate their reign.

TO THE FIGURE-HEAD OF "THE FOAM."

IX.

Yet even here your gracious beauty shed

Deep calm; old Ocean slumbered 'neath its spell; And Summer seemed to follow where you led,

As loth to bid your kindred smile farewell.

X.

The ominous shapes of drifting ice, that pack
The desolate channels of the polar flood,
Clustered like wolves around our Northward track,
Till swayed by that sweet power to altered mood,

XI.

They cowered, and ranged themselves on either side,
Like vassal ranks who watch some passing Queen
Through her white columned halls in silence glide,
Nor mingling meet till she no more is seen.

XII.

And we with confident souls still followed you,
Where stern those serried files of icebergs rose,-
As James of Douglas followed,-staunch and true,
The honoured heart he flung amongst his foes;

XIII.

Till in my sailors' child-like hearts there grew
A vague, half sportive reverence for that Form,-
Which, like commissioned angel, onward flew,

And with a halcyon spell conjured the storm!

xiii

What marvel then, if-when our wearied hull
In some lone haven found a brief repose,
Rude hands, by love made delicate, would cull
A grateful garland for your Goddess brows?

XV.

What marvel if their leader, too, would lay
His fragile wreath of evanescent rhyme,
At her dear feet whose image cheered his way,

And warm'd with old home thoughts the lonely time,

XVI.

When as he watched that sculptured life-like smile
Through many an anxious hour of Arctic gloom,

Its magic influence would half beguile

The bleak and barren ocean tracts to bloom

XVII.

With well remembered woods, and Highland hills
That cluster round a castle's stately towers;
And gleaming lawns, and glens, and murmuring rills,
Where Edith plays amid the summer flowers!

Dramatis Personæ.

SIGURDR, Son of JONAS, Icelander; Law Student.

CHARLES E. FITZGERALD, Surgeon; Photographer; Botanist.
LORD DUFFERIN, Navigator; Sagaman; Artist.
WILLIAM WILSON, Valet; Gardener; Cape Colonist.

ALBERT GRANT, Steward; Watchmaker; Bird-stuffer.

JOHN BEVIS, First Cook; afterwards Ducrow.

WILLIAM WEBSTER, Second Cook; Carpenter; late of Her Majesty's

Foot Guards; afterwards Maid Marian.

EBENEZER WYSE, Master; Californian Gold-digger.

WILLIAM LEVERETT, Mate.

WILLIAM TAYLOR, Butcher.

CHARLES PARNE

Ladies and Cavaliers of the ICELANDIC, NORSE, LAPPISH, and FRENCH tongues.

SCENE.-Sometimes on board the "FOAM," sometimes in ICELAND, SPITZBERGEN, and NORWAY.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN !