Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LIGHTKEEPER by HENRY CHAPPELL

First Line: ABOVE, BELOW, HOW THE WILD WINDS GO
Last Line: MIGHT STRIKE AND SHUDDERING DIE.
Subject(s): DEATH; REST; SILENCE; DEAD, THE;
ABOVE, below, How the wild winds go
And wrest at my ocean tower;
But safe stand I 'twixt sea and sky
And laugh at their puny power.
They lash with might the breakers white
That fret at my castle keep,
His long race done the fiery sun
Sinks in the west to sleep.

I mark the flight of the wings of night,
Close o'er the restless sea,
And hear the knell of the wave-swung bell,
In its ceaseless monody,
Sowing the brine with jewels divine
The Night Queen rises lone,
And my turret light so clear and bright
Grows pale before her own.

When the storm-god glides o'er the raging tides
And night lowers chill and black,
I send my beam with fiery gleam
Thro' the driving mist and wrack,
Now red, now white, athwart the night
My warning flashes fly
Where in the dark the labouring bark
Might strike and shuddering die.



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