Poetry: Lines Written Upon A Sea-gull

Fly on, fly on, thou noble bird, What hand could aim against thy lifc, When you so nobly brave the storm, And gather pleusure in the atrife; Fly oh, fly on, and boundless roam Far, far o'er thinc own lake and sen, Sincc their high waves thou mak'st thy home Since their fierce storms are bliss to thee. But stop, oh 6top! T pray thee teil, (If aught ofgood be in the tale,) What impulse mnkesthee kies the swell, And why you court the rising gale - For oh 1 feel, when faie doih bring lts etorms upon life's troubled sea, 'Twould be a glorious, happy thing. Cottld we but brave those storms likc thee. Tfien pry' thee teil, when etorms o' cast, When hearts and hands begin to fail, When cares that firsl but blew a blast Have risen quite to blow a gnle - Oh teil us how wiih hearts as liglit As scems thy will, thy wirig, thy fonn, How we may live in such a night, How we niay brave out such a storm. When slander's tongue, i(B arts employ To blight a virtuouö, hontst name, When envy's hand would smite the boy Who seeks tó gain a living fame - Dh teil them how such storms to brave, For much they neèd thy magie tale,- - Alrendy are they on the wave; Already yield they to the gale: And when some pöorand honest marl Ie struggling manful' against his fatc, Ör when some yonth has formed a plan (And haid's histaskl) to rise, be great; t)r when some tender heart's exposed To io temptation's gilded formj Oh teach them how such gnle's opposed! And how to live out süch a stormt Ör should some noble, ffcc-born band E'er say or hope that free they'll bé Or should some despoi's iroh hand E'er 'tempt to grasp or bind the Cree--Öh pry' the teil them then thy tale, How wide you roam, how far you rarigc, ÍIow you oppose the fiercest grtie, And yet you never, nevcr change. And 't secms" to me that 'twould be sweet, When malico swells its hideous forrh, When all the perils deign to meet, Or envious critics raise a storm - That 'twould be sweet to learn irom thee, How unconcerned we then miglu sail, Ör how to ride this troubled sea, And laugh at all the furions gale,' H tadrf Lahc Óntari-o, Jvne, 1842.