SABRINA

by: Lucretia Davidson (1808-1825)

A VOLCANIC ISLAND, WHICH APPEARED AND DISAPPEARED AMONG THE AZORES, IN 1811.


SLE of the ocean, say, whence comest thou?

The smoke thy dark throne, and the blaze round thy brow;

The voice of the earthquake proclaims thee abroad,

And the deep, at thy coming, rolls darkly and loud.

 

From the breast of the ocean, the bed of the wave,

Thou hast burst into being, hast sprung from the grave;

A stranger, wild, gloomy, yet terribly bright,

Thou art clothed with the darkness, yet crowned with the light.

 

Thou comest in flames, thou hast risen in fire;

The wave is thy pillow, the tempest thy choir;

They will lull thee to sleep on the ocean's broad breast,

A slumb'ring volcano, an earthquake at rest.

 

Thou hast looked on the isle — thou hast looked on the wave —

Then hie thee again to thy deep, watery grave;

Go, quench thee in ocean, thou dark, nameless thing,

Thou spark from the fallen one's wide flaming wing.

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