Books and other items printed in Gaelic from 1871 to 1900 > Gaelic bards, and original poems

18
MODERN GAELIC BARDS.
A thick-set, broad, and craggy champion,
With fingers huge.
The sheet he must be ever guiding
With scrambling force;
When the winds come fiercely blowing,
Pulling well in;
But when it slacks, and lags, and flutters,
He lets free.
THE MAN ORDERED OUT FOR THE EAR-RING.
Let this man who is tight and sturdy,
Handy, nice, and fine,
Work the jib-sheet without flinching,
When she nears the wind;
Bring it up and down in order,
To each fitting hold,
As the wind may chance to follow,
Or the high topp’d wave;
And if he find the tempest rising,
Or loud groaning come,
He ’ll bring it, with good grasp heroic.
To the gunwale down.
THE LOOK-OUT ORDERED TO THE FORE.
How, rising, let this slow man go
Up to the prow;
Our harbour with unerring knowledge
He must show;
Every art descrying keenly
Whence the wind can blow,
And telling to the steersman surely
The right way to go.
Each landmark he must note and gather
From afar,
Since it, with Him who rules the seasons,
Is our guiding star.