Would you from toil and labor flee,
Oh float ye out on this wonderful sea,
From islands of spice the zephyrs blow,
Swaying the galleys to and fro;
Silken sails and a balmy breeze
Shall waft you unto a perfect ease.

Fold your hands and rest, and rest,
The sun sails on from the east to the west,
The days will come, and the days will go,
What good can man for his labor show
In passionless peace, come float with me
Over the waves of this wonderful sea.

Would you forget, oh sorrowful soul,
Come and drink of this golden bowl,
With jewelled poppies about the rim,
Drink of the wine that flushes its brim,
And drown all your haunting memories there,
Your woe and your weary care.

Oh, I am the siren, the siren of the sea,
  The sea, the wondrous sea, that lies forevermore before;
Oh, the mystic music ripples, how they break in rosy spray,
  But the crystal wave will mock them, they will reach it
         nevermore,
For it glides away, I glide away, they come no nigher me,
For I am the siren, the siren of the sea.

EIGHTEEN SIXTY-TWO.

I.

There’s a tear in your eye, little Sybil,
  Gathering large and slow;
Oh, Sybil, sweet little Sybil,
  What are you thinking of now?

Push back the velvet curtains
  That darken the lonely room,
For shadows peer out of the crimson depths,
  And the statues gleam white in the gloom.

How the cannons’ thunder rolls along,
  And shakes the lattice and wall,
Oh, Sybil, sweet little Sybil,
  What if your father should fall?

The smoky clouds sweep up from the field
  And darken the earth and sea,
“God save him!  God save him!”
  Wherever he may be.

II.

Oh, pretty dark-eyed bird of the South,
  With your face so mournful and white
There is many a little Northern girl
  That is breathing that prayer to-night.

There’s a little girl on the hills of Maine
  Looking out through the fading light,
She looks down the winding path, and says,
  “He will surely come to-night!”

The table is set, the lamp is trimmed,
  The fire has a ruddy glow
That streams like a beacon down the path,
  To the dusky valley below.

There is smiling hope on the pretty face
  Pressed so close to the pane,
And her eyes are like blue violets
  After a summer rain.

III.

How you tremble, little Sybil,
  At the cannons’ dreadful sound,
Did you see far away, the fallen steed,
  And its rider prone on the ground?

The dark brown locks so low in the dust,
  The scarf with a crimson stain—­
Oh, Sybil, poor little Sybil,
  He will not come back again.