Читать книгу Notes and Queries, Number 35, June 29, 1850 - Various - Страница 3

THOUGHTS ON NEW YEAR'S DAY.

"The moments of chasten'd delight are gone by,

When we left our lov'd homes o'er new regions to rove,

When the firm manly grasp, and the soft female sigh,

Mark'd the mingled sensations of friendship and love.

That season of pleasure has hurried away,

When through far-stretching ice a safe passage we found1,

That led us again to the dark rolling sea,

And the signal was seen, 'On for Lancaster's Sound.'2

"The joys that were felt when we pass'd by the shore

Where no footsteps of Man had e'er yet been imprest,

When rose in the distance no mountain-tops hoar

As the sun of the ev'ning bright gilded the west,

Full swiftly they fled—and that hour, too, is gone

When we gain'd the meridian, assign'd as a bound

To entitle our crews to their country's first boon,

Hail'd by all as an omen the passage was found.

"And pass'd with our pleasures are moments of pain,

Of anxious suspense, and of eager alarm.

Environ'd by ice, skill and ardour were vain

The swift moving mass of its force to disarm—

Yet, dash'd on the beach and our boats torn away,

No anchors could hold us, nor cables secure;

The dread and the peril expir'd with the day,

When none but High Heaven could our safety ensure.

"Involv'd with the ages existent before,

Is the year that has brought us thus far on our way,

And gratitude calls us our God to adore,

For the oft-renewed mercies its annals display.

The gloomy meridian of darkness is past,

And ere long shall gay spring bid the herbage revive;

On the wide waste of ice she'll re-echo the blast,

And the firm prison'd ocean its fetters shall rive.