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

24
MODERN GAELIC BARDS.
The waves before us shrilly yelling
Raised their high heads hoar,
While those behind, with moaning trumpets,
Gave a bellowing roar.
When we rose up aloft, majestic,
On the heaving swell,
Need was to pull in our canvas
Smart and well.
When she sank down with one huge swallow
In the hollow glen,
Every sail she bore aloft
Was given to her then.
The drizzling surges high and roaring
Rush’d on us louting;
Long ere they were near us come,
We heard their shouting.
They roll’d sweeping up the little waves,
Scourging them bare.
Till all became one threatening swell,
Our steersman’s care.
When down we fell from off the billows’
Towering shaggy edge,
Our keel was well nigh hurled against
The shells and sedge;
The whole sea was lashing, dashing,
All through other.
It kept the seals and mightiest monsters
In a pother.
The fury and the surging of the water,
And our good ship’s swift way
Spatter’d their white brains on each billow,
Livid and grey.
With piteous wailing and complaining,
All the storm-toss’d horde,
Shouted out “ We’re now your subjects;
Drag us on board.”