JERSEY

 ("Jersey dort dans les flots.") 
 
 {Bk. III. xiv., Oct. 8, 1854.} 


 Dear Jersey! jewel jubilant and green, 
 'Midst surge that splits steel ships, but sings to thee! 
 Thou fav'rest Frenchmen, though from England seen, 
 Oft tearful to that mistress "North Countree"; 
 Returned the third time safely here to be, 
 I bless my bold Gibraltar of the Free. 
 
 Yon lighthouse stands forth like a fervent friend, 
 One who our tempest buffets back with zest, 
 And with twin-steeple, eke our helmsman's end, 
 Forms arms that beckon us upon thy breast; 
 Rose-posied pillow, crystallized with spray, 
 Where pools pellucid mirror sunny ray. 
 
 A frigate fretting yonder smoothest sky, 
 Like pauseless petrel poising o'er a wreck, 
 Strikes bright athwart the dearly dazzled eye, 
 Until it lessens to scarce certain speck, 
 'Neath Venus, sparkling on the agate-sprinkled beach, 
 For fisher's sailing-signal, just and true, 
 Until Aurora frights her from the view. 
 
 In summer, steamer-smoke spreads as thy veil, 
 And mists in winter sudden screen thy sight, 
 When at thy feet the galley-breakers wail 
 And toss their tops high o'er the lofty flight 
 Of horrid storm-worn steps with shark-like bite, 
 That only ope to swallow up in spite. 
 
 L'ENVOY. 
 
 But penitent in calm, thou givest a balm, 
 To many a man who's felt thy rage, 
 And many a sea-bird—thanks be heard!— 
 Thou shieldest—sea-bird—exiled bard and sage. 


 

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