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Read Ebook: The Poems and Verses of Charles Dickens by Dickens Charles Kitton Frederic George Editor
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Ebook has 76 lines and 8039 words, and 2 pages
A seaman rough, to shipwreck bred, Stood out from all the rest, And gently laid the lonely head Upon his honest breast. And travelling o'er the desert wide It was a solemn joy, To see them, ever side by side, The sailor and the boy.
In famine, sickness, hunger, thirst, The two were still but one, Until the strong man droop'd the first And felt his labours done. Then to a trusty friend he spake, 'Across the desert wide, O take this poor boy for my sake!' And kiss'd the child and died.
Toiling along in weary plight Through heavy jungle, mire, These two came later every night To warm them at the fire. Until the captain said one day, 'O seaman good and kind, To save thyself now come away, And leave the boy behind!'
The child was slumbering near the blaze: 'O captain, let him rest Until it sinks, when God's own ways Shall teach us what is best!' They watch'd the whiten'd ashy heap, They touch'd the child in vain; They did not leave him there asleep, He never woke again.
TO WILKIE COLLINS'S PLAY 'THE FROZEN DEEP'
'THE FROZEN DEEP'
The Prologue was recited at Tavistock House by John Forster, and at the public performances of the play by Dickens himself.
It is not generally known that a by no means inconsiderable portion of the drama was composed by Dickens, as testified by the original manuscripts of the play and of the prompt-book, which contain numerous additions and corrections in his handwriting. These manuscripts, by the way, realised ?300 at Sotheby's in 1890.
TO 'THE FROZEN DEEP'
One savage footprint on the lonely shore Where one man listen'd to the surge's roar, Not all the winds that stir the mighty sea Can ever ruffle in the memory. If such its interest and thrall, O then Pause on the footprints of heroic men, Making a garden of the desert wide Where Parry conquer'd death and Franklin died.
To that white region where the Lost lie low, Wrapt in their mantles of eternal snow,-- Unvisited by change, nothing to mock Those statues sculptured in the icy rock, We pray your company; that hearts as true may live for you; Nor only yet that on our little glass A faint reflection of those wilds may pass, But that the secrets of the vast Profound Within us, an exploring hand may sound, Testing the region of the ice-bound soul, Seeking the passage at its northern pole, Softening the horrors of its wintry sleep, Melting the surface of that 'Frozen Deep.'
Vanish, ye mists! But ere this gloom departs, And to the union of three sister arts We give a winter evening, good to know That in the charms of such another show, That in the fiction of a friendly play, The Arctic sailors, too, put gloom away, Forgot their long night, saw no starry dome, Hail'd the warm sun, and were again at Home.
Vanish, ye mists! Not yet do we repair To the still country of the piercing air; But seek, before we cross the troubled seas, An English hearth and Devon's waving trees.
A CHILD'S HYMN FROM 'THE WRECK OF THE GOLDEN MARY'
A CHILD'S HYMN
A CHILD'S HYMN
Hear my prayer, O! Heavenly Father, Ere I lay me down to sleep; Bid Thy Angels, pure and holy, Round my bed their vigil keep.
My sins are heavy, but Thy mercy Far outweighs them every one; Down before Thy Cross I cast them, Trusting in Thy help alone.
Keep me through this night of peril Underneath its boundless shade; Take me to Thy rest, I pray Thee, When my pilgrimage is made.
Pardon all my past transgressions, Give me strength for days to come; Guide and guard me with Thy blessing Till Thy Angels bid me home.
Edinburgh: Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE
Footnotes:
Sir Martin Archer Shee, P.R.A.
When Winstanley had brought his work to completion, he is said to have expressed himself so satisfied as to its strength, that he only wished he might be there in the fiercest storm that ever blew. His wish was gratified, and, contrary to his expectations, both he and the building were swept completely away by a furious tempest which burst along the coast in November 1703.
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