The Whistling Buoy Off Nauset

Voice of unutterable woe Wailing alone at sea! Borne on the shuddering winds that blow Out of the dark to me. Now far - now near To the frightened ear Comes that monody wild and free. Mingled of menace and grief and fear With a maniac chuckle of glee - O hear! That note of demoniac glee! Prophet of peril and storm, Harbinger, Triton and brute, Mariners peering to glimpse your form Cheer at your hoarse salute - That gurgling sound Of a sob half drowned That is vague as the muttering foam! Staggering drunkenly to and fro, You buffet the tide rips and undertow, A fettered gnome In the grip of the shoals below. Hark to that ominous roar Freezing the blood with dread! Vampire waves on a spectral shore Ravening over the dead. O-oo, O-oo! Is your wild adieu To the souls that the winds have sped! Breakers are howling like wolves on the trail, Foaming and gnashing and leaping the rail, Where a shrieking crew Are lost in the maddened gale. Wraith of the dangerous seas, Haunting the skeleton sands, Creature of iron and billow and breeze Wrought by a mortal’s hands. Your eerie moan So weird - so lone Is a medley of boding and rapture and groan. Roisterer, mourner and demon I wis Strangest of beings in ocean’s abyss Your elfin cry Is a note of its infinite mystery.