Songs of Sea and Sail

<h2>FROM THE CLIFF.</h2> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">The wind is fresh, the wind is foul;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">The clouds are long and low and gray;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">The rocky headland wears a cowl,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And looks a monk who kneels to pray</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And tell his beads for parting souls:</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">While out beyond the bar there rolls</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">A sullen swell, and white and high</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Along the cliffs the breakers fly.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>Roar, roar, O Sea! Thy stormy song</i></span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>Appalls the weak, but nerves the strong.</i></span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Look! yonder bark with puffing sail</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Has turned her bow to win the sea;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">She fears to meet the rising gale</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">With reef and rockland on her lee.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And as she luffs the blast to greet,</span><br/> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</SPAN></span></p> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">By halyard, clew, and straining sheet,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">All, all, alert her seamen stand,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And watch with anxious eye the land.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>Roar, roar, O Sea! Thy stormy song</i></span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>Appalls the weak, but nerves the strong.</i></span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Then tack on tack she weathers out&mdash;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Her topsails shiver in the wind;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Down goes the helm, she flies about,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">And leaping off soon leaves behind</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">The rocky dangers, and has past</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">The headland, when the wrathful blast,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bursts from the cloud and wild and grand</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hurls in the sea against the land.</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>Roar, roar, O Sea! Thy stormy song</i></span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 4em;"><i>Appalls the weak, but nerves the strong.</i></span><br/> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</SPAN></span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />