ADDRESS TO A STEAM VESSEL.

ADDRESS TO A STEAM VESSEL . FREIGHTED with passengers of every sort , A motley throng , thou leavest the busy port : Thy long and ample deck , — where scattered lie , Baskets and cloaks and shawls of crimson dye ; Where dogs and children through the crowd are straying , And on his bench apart the fiddler playing , While matron dames to tresseled seats repair , — Seems , on the glassy waves , a floating fair . Its dark form on the sky's pale azure cast , Towers from this clustering group thy pillared mast ; The dense smoke , issuing from its narrow vent , Is to the air in curly volumes sent , Which coiling and uncoiling on the wind , Trails , like a writhing serpent , far behind . Beneath , as each merged wheel its motion plies , On either side the white-churned waters rise , And newly parted from the noisy fray , Track with light ridgy foam thy recent way , Then far diverged , in many a lustrous line On the still-moving distant surface shine . Thou holdest thy course in independent pride ; No leave askest thou of either wind or tide . To whate'er point the breeze inconstant veer , Still doth thy careless helmsman onward steer ; As if the stroke of some magician's wand Had lent thee power the ocean to command . What is this power which thus within thee lurks , And all unseen , like a masked giant works ? Even that which gentle dames at morning tea , From silver urn ascending , daily see With tressy wreathings borne upon the air Like loosened ringlets of a lady's hair ; Or rising from th' enamelled cup beneath , With the soft fragrance of an infant's breath : That which within the peasant's humble cot Comes from the uncovered mouth of savoury pot , As his kind mate prepares his noonday fare , Which cur and cat and rosy urchins share ; That which , all silvered by the moon's pale beam Precedes the mighty Geyser's up-cast stream , What time , with bellowing din , exploded forth , It decks the midnight of the frozen north , While travellers from their skin-spread couches rise To gaze upon the sight with wondering eyes . Thou hast to those " in populous city pent " Glimpses of wild and beauteous nature lent , A bright remembrance ne'er to be destroyed , That proves to them a treasure long enjoyed , And for this scope to beings erst confined , I fain would hail thee with a grateful mind . They who had nought of verdant freshness seen , But suburb orchards choked with colworts green , Now , seated at their ease , may glide along , Loch Lomond's fair and fairy Isles among ; Where bushy promontories fondly peep At their own beauty in the nether deep , O'er drooping birch and rowen red that lave Their fragrant branches in the glassy wave : They who on higher objects scarce have counted Than church-spire with its gilded vane surmounted , May view within their near , distinctive ken The rocky summits of the lofty Ben ; Or see his purple shoulders darkly lower Through the dim drapery of a summer shower . Where , spread in broad and fair expanse , the Clyde Mingles his waters with the briny tide , Along the lesser Cumra's rocky shore , With moss and crusted lichens fleckered o'er , He who but warfare held with thievish cat , Or from his cupboard chaced a hungry rat , The city cobbler , — scares the wild sea-mew In its mid-flight with loud and shrill halloo ; Or valiantly with fearful threatening shakes His lank and greasy head at Kittywakes . The common or vulgar name of a bird frequenting that coast . The eyes that have no fairer outline seen , Than chimneyed walls with slated roofs between , Which hard and harshly edge the smoky sky , May Aron's softly-visioned peaks descry , Coping with graceful state her steepy sides O'er which the cloud's broad shadow swiftly glides , And interlacing slopes that gently merge Into the pearly mist of ocean's verge . Eyes which admired that work of sordid skill , The storied structure of a cotton mill , May wondering now behold the unnumbered host Of marshalled pillars on fair Ireland's coast , Phalanx on phalanx ranged with sidelong bend Or broken ranks that to the main descend , Like Pharaoh's army on the Red Sea shore , Who deep and deeper sunk , to rise no more . Yet ne'ertheless , whate'er we owe to thee , Rover at will on river , lake , and sea , As profit's bait or pleasure's lure engage , Offspring of Watt , that philosophic sage , Who in the heraldry of science ranks With those to whom men owe high meed of thanks For genius usefully employed , whose fame Shall still be linked with Davy's splendid name ! Dearer to fancy , to the eye more fair Are the light skiffs , that to the breezy air Unfurl their swelling sails of snowy hue Upon the moving lap of ocean blue : As the proud swan on summer lake displays , With plumage brightening in the morning rays , Her fair pavilion of erected wings , They change and veer and turn like living things . With ample store of shrouding , sails and mast To brave with manly skill the winter blast Of every clime , — in vessels rigged like these Did great Columbus cross the western seas , And to the stinted thoughts of man revealed What yet the course of ages had concealed : In such as these , on high adventure bent Round the vast world Magellan's comrades went . To such as these are hardy seamen found As with the ties of kindred feeling bound , Boasting , while cans of cheering grog they sip , The varied fortunes of " our gallant ship : " The offspring these of bold sagacious man , Ere yet the reign of lettered lore began . In very truth , compared to these , thou art A daily labourer , a mechanic swart , In working weeds arrayed of homely grey , Opposed to gentle nymph or lady gay , To whose free robes the graceful right is given To play and dally with the winds of heaven . Beholding thee , the great of other days And modern men with all their altered ways , Across my mind with hasty transit gleam , Like fleeting shadows of a feverish dream : Fitful I gaze , with adverse humours teased , Half sad , half proud , half angry , and half pleased .