The Wreckers

     Hark! to the roar of the surges,
        Hark! to the wild winds how!
See the black cload that the hurricane urges
        Bend like a maniac's scowl
     Fall on the sunken lee ledges,
        Laps the devoted bark;
And the fond waves, like a hundred sledges,
     Smite to the doomed mark!

     Shrilly the shriek of the seaman
        Cleaves like a dart through the roar;
Harsh as the pitiless laugh of a demon,
        Rattles the pebbled shore. 
     Ho! for the life boat, brothers,
        Now may the hearts of the brave,
Hurling their lives to the rescue of others,
        Conquer the stormy wave.

     Shame for Humanity's treason!
        Shame for the form we wear!
Blush, at the temple of pity and reason
        Turned to a robbers' lair!
     Worse than the horrible breakers,
        Worse than the shattering storm,
See the rough handed, remorseless wreckers,
        Stripping the clay yet warm

     Plucking at girlhood's tresses,
        Tangled with gems and gold:
Snatching lore tokens from manhood's caresses, 
       Clenched with a dying hold?
     What of the shrieks of despairing?
        What of the last faint gasp?
Robbers, who lived would but lessen your sharing, 
        Gold— twas a God in your grasp!

     Boys in their sunny brown beauty, 
        Men in their rugged bronze;
Women whose wail might have taught wolves a duty,
       Died on the merciless stones.
     Tenderly slid o'er the plundered,
        Shrouds from the white capped surge;
Loud on the traitors the mad ocean thundered;—
        Low o'er the lost sang a dirge.

     Wo! there are deadlier breakers, 
        Billows that burn as they roll?
Flanked by a legion of crueler wreckers,
        Wreckers of body and soul.
     Traitors to God and Humanity, 
        Circes that hold in their urns
Blood dripping murder and hopeless insanity,
        Folly and famine by turns.

     Crested with wine redly flashing,
        Swollen with liquid fire,
How the strong ruin comes fearfully dashing,
        High as the soul walks and higher!