Giveth grace unto every Art.
A quiet smile played round his lips,
As the eddies and dimples of the
tide

Play round the bows of ships
That steadily at anchor ride.
And with a voice that was full of
glee,

He answered, "Ere long we will launch

A vessel as goodly, and strong,

and stanch,

As ever weathered a wintry sea!"

3 And first with nicest skill and art, Perfect and finish in every part, A little model the Master wrought,

Which should be to the larger plan
What the child is to the man,
Its counterpart in miniature;
That with a hand more swift and

sure

The greater labor might be brought

To answer to his inward thought.

4 And as he labored, his mind ran o'er

The various ships that were built

of yore, And above them all, and strangest of all,

Towered the Great Harry, crank and tall,

Whose picture was hanging on the wall,

With bows and stern raised high in air,

And balconies hanging here and there,

And signal lanterns and flags afloat,

And eight round towers, like those that frown

From some old castle, looking down

Upon the drawbridge and the moat;

And he said, with a smile, "Our ship, I wis,

Shall be of another form than this!"

5 It was of another form, indeed; Built for freight, and yet for speed, A beautiful and gallant craft; Broad in the beam, that the stress of the blast,

Pressing down upon sail and mast, Might not the sharp bows overwhelm;

Broad in the beam, but sloping aft With graceful curve and slow degrees,

Seemed to be fluttering in the wind.

It was not shaped in a classic mold,

Not like a Nymph or Goddess of old,

Or Naiad rising from the water, But modeled from the Master's daughter.

On many a dreary and misty night

'Twill be seen by the rays of the signal light,

Speeding along through the rain and the dark

Like a ghost in its snow-white sark, The pilot of some phantom bark, Guiding the vessel, in its flight, By a path none other knows aright!

To feel the stress and the strain Of the wind and the reeling main, Whose roar

Would remind them for evermore Of their native forests they should not see again.

27 And everywhere
The slender, graceful spars
Poise aloft in the air,
And at the masthead,
White, blue, and red,

A flag unrolls the Stripes and
Stars.

28 Ah! when the wanderer, lonely, friendless,

In foreign harbors shall behold
That flag unrolled,

'Twill be as a friendly hand Stretched out from his native land,

Filling his heart with memories sweet and endless!

29 All is finished! and at length Has come the bridal day Of beauty and of strength. To-day the vessel shall be launched!

With fleecy clouds the sky is blanched,

And o'er the bay,

Slowly, in all his splendors dight,' The great sun rises to behold the sight. 30 The ocean old,

Centuries old,

Strong as youth, and as uncontrolled,

Paces restless to and fro,
Up and down the sands of gold,
His beating heart is not at rest;
And far and wide,
With ceaseless flow,
His beard of snow