Port Tobacco Times, And Charles County Advertiser

Selected Poetry.
From the Baltimore American.

SAINT BRANDAN.
BY WILLIAM I. GIBSON, LIEUT. U. S. NAVY.

I read the legend; saw, in sleep,
The ancient ship, in gallant trim,
Sail out into the unknown deep,
At morning twilight dim.

In blind foam fleeted Erin's isle.
As, in the rising sun the while,
A sweet youth, with a heavenly smile,
On a gold harp did hymn.

"And what, O youth, in bark so quaint,
Seek those seraphic eyes?
What speaks thy harp?" "Hope!" sang the saint;
"I sail for Paradise"

My vision changed—'Twas noon: The sea
In glaring calm one vessel glassed.
In leaden immobility
The worn sails draped the mast.

The voyager, in manly prime,
I knew: and still that song sublime
I heard, defying tide and time,
Although the morn was past.

"O minstrel, what, when hope seems dead,
Yet holds thy raptured eyes?
What now art hymning?" "Faith!" he said,
"And the isle of Paradise!"

I dreamed through shocks of storm and gale—
Again I saw the day was done
That bark a wreck with ragged sail,
Steered for the setting sun,

But, ah! I had not known, in sooth:
Save for those eyes of radiant truth
And that rich harp, the seraph youth
And gray-haired saint were one.

"And what, O sage, at close of even,
Yet lights thine earnest eyes?
What music?" "Love! and yon pure heaven,
The shore of Paradise!"

Lo! the long surge in jasper swells.
Like God's own sea! A mighty land.
With opaline peaks and purple dells,
Soared from the waters grand!

With great woods waved on every slope,
An isle distinct from base to cope;
And quenched in Love, for Faith and Hope,
Was the repelling brand!

Too soon I lost that glorious sky,
That bark, those solemn eyes;
But my night was filled with harmony,
That breathed of Paradise!

Let no heart faint in the slow course
Of effort vain—it must achieve—
There lives indomitable force
In simply to believe.

Hope tunes thy harp, child-poet pure;
Teach Faith with all thy might mature—
And Love—O, sing its promise sure,
To give and to receive!

Divine or human, this one truth
Seek with persistent eyes—
Outbraving time and conquering ruth,
Man may win Paradise!