one
hand and the aspirations of a spiritual nature on the other, of which the
sea bird is to him the type. In dwelling on these ideals the poet loses
sight of the seafarer and his half-heathen associations, and as
inevitably rises to a contemplation of the cheering hopes of a future
life afforded by Christianity."

The dullness and obscurity of the last part of the poem, however, and the
obvious similarity to the homilies of the time make it very unlikely that
the whole poem was written by one author.]

I will sing of myself a song that is true,
Tell of my travels and troublesome days,
How often I endured days of hardship;
Bitter breast-care I have borne as my portion,
5 Have seen from my ship sorrowful shores,
Awful welling of waves; oft on watch I have been
On the narrow night-wakes at the neck of the ship,
When it crashed into cliffs; with cold often pinched
Were my freezing feet, by frost bound tight
10 In its blighting clutch; cares then burned me,
Hot around my heart. Hunger tore within
My sea-weary soul. To conceive this is hard
For the landsman who lives on the lonely shore--
How, sorrowful and sad on a sea ice-cold,
15 I eked out my exile through the awful winter
. . . . . . . . deprived of my kinsmen,
Hung about by icicles; hail flew in showers.
There I heard naught but the howl of the sea,
The ice-cold surge with a swan-song at times;
20 The note of the gannet for gayety served me,
The sea-bird's song for sayings of people,
For the mead-drink of men the mew's sad note.
Storms beat on the cliffs, 'mid the cry of gulls,
Icy of feather; and the eagle screamed,
25 The dewy-winged bird. No dear friend comes
With merciful kindness my misery to conquer.
Of this little can he judge who has joy in his life,
And, settled in the city, is sated with wine,
And proud and prosperous-- how painful it is
30 When I wearily wander on the waves full oft!
Night shadows descended; it snowed from the north;
The world was fettered with frost; hail fell to the earth,
The coldest of corns.
Yet course now desires
Which surge in my heart for the high seas,
35 That I test the