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Poem by Felicia Dorothea Hemans


The Bell at Sea



The dangerous islet called the Bell Rock [the Inchcape Rock], on the coast of Forfarshire used formerly to be marked only by a bell, which was so placed as to be swung by the motion of the waves, when the tide rose above the rock. A lighthouse has since been erected there.

WHEN the tide’s billowy swell
  Had reached its height,
Then tolled the rock’s lone bell
  Sternly by night.

Far over cliff and surge
  Swept the deep sound,
Making each wild wind’s dirge
  Still more profound.

Yet that funereal tone
  The sailor blessed,
Steering through darkness on
  With fearless breast.

E’en so may we, that float
  On life’s wide sea,
Welcome each warning note,
  Stern though it be!



Felicia Dorothea Hemans


Felicia Dorothea Hemans's other poems:
  1. Joan of Arc in Rheims
  2. The Music of St. Patrick’s
  3. The Grave of a Poetess
  4. Cœur de Lion at the Bier of His Father
  5. The Rock of Cader Idris


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