The Lee Shore Source: The Aldine, Vol. 6, No. 5 (May, 1873), pp. 94, 90 Published by: Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20636533 . Accessed: 15/05/2014 06:14 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 193.104.110.26 on Thu, 15 May 2014 06:14:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Transcript
The Lee ShoreSource: The Aldine, Vol. 6, No. 5 (May, 1873), pp. 94, 90Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20636533 .
Accessed: 15/05/2014 06:14
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
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who go down to the sea in ships, the perils of a lee
shore are the most dreadful. The good ship has
made her journey so far safely. She has encountered
storms, perhaps, in mid-ocean, but they are past. She has gone on day after day, and night after night; the sun has shone upon her from the infinite blue above; the moon has turned the waves around her
into silver; she has plowed her way gallantly over
CITY GIRLS AND COUNTRY GIRLS. ? Dore.
the "wandering fields of barren foam ;" her pennon j has drooped in tropic calms, and fluttered vvildlv in the icy gusts of the north, and it was all one to her, and her stout-hearted, merry crew. Suddenly a wind comes?who knows whence??and she is driven out of her course on a lee shore. She has left danger behind, only to meet destruction before. The skill that has guided her hitherto is useless here. There are strong hands at the rudder, but the wind is
stronger, and it steers her whither it will. It were N better that she had sunk in the deep sea, with all on board, than that she should reach the shore to which the mad, merciless wind is driving her ? the wild,
stormy, rock-bound, terrible lee shore !
Barry Cornwall places us on her dreadful deck :
" We are hurried to our doom : Oh, how wild and how strong Are the billows on whose bosom we are beating along; And the Tempest he is calling (hark, how terrible his song!) ]
For thee ! for me ! "
I
Hood has surpassed him, we think, in this melan
choly little poem, which appears to have been writ
ten for a picture: THE LEE SHORE.
Sleet! and Hail! and Thunder I And ye winds that rave.
Till the sands thereunder
Tinge the sullen wave ?
Winds that like a demon, Howl with horrid note
Round the toiling seaman In his tossing boat ?
From his humble dwelling, On the shingly shore,
Where the billows swelling Keep such hollow roar ?
From that weeping Woman,
Seeking with her eyes Succor superhuman
From the frowning skies ?
From the Urchin pining For his Father's knee ?
From the lattice shining, Drive him out to sea!
j
Let broad leagues dissever Him from yonder foam : ?
Oh, God! to think Man ever Comes too near his home !
An American poet describes the lee shore by night: " Through the night, through the night, In the saddest unrest,
Wrapt in white, all in white, With her babe on her breast,
Walks the mother so pale, Staring out on the gale,
Through the night!
Through the night, through the night, Wherethe sea lifts the wreck,
Land in sight, close in sight, On the surf-flooded deck,
Stands the father so brave,
Driving on to his grave, Through the night!
"
We have great respect for the poets; but, if we wish to realize the terrors of the lee shore, we must
call in a painter to aid us. For this purpose we can
not find a better one in America than Mr. M. F. H.
de Haas, whose illustration, " The Lee Shore/' our
readers have already seen. Powerfully handled
throughout, and penetrated with the fury of the winds and the ungovernable strength of the sea, it is worthy of the reputation of this distinguished artist.
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