410 FLANNAN ISLE "THOUGH three men dwell on Flannan Isle As we steered under the lee, we caught A passing ship at dawn had brought The Winter day broke blue and bright, But as we neared the lonely Isle, Of comfort through the dark, It seemed, that we were struck the while And as into the tiny creek We stole beneath the hanging crag, For cormorant or shag Like seamen sitting bolt-upright But, as we neared, they plunged from sight, And still too mazed to speak, We landed; and made fast the boat; So it be far from Flannan Isle: Yet, all too soon, we reached the door As, on the threshold, for a spell, We paused, we seemed to breathe the smell Familiar as our daily breath, As though 'twere some strange scent of death: The door, ere we should fling it wide, Yet, as we crowded through the door, For dinner, meat and cheese and bread; Alarm had come; and they in haste Had risen and left the bread and meat: For at the table-head a chair Lay tumbled on the floor. We listened; but we only heard We hunted high, we hunted low; That might have hid a bird or mouse: But, though we searched from shore to shore, We found no sign in any place: And soon again stood face to face Before the gaping door: And stole into the room once more As frightened children steal. Ay: though we hunted high and low, And hunted everywhere, Of the three men's fate we found no trace Of any kind in any place, But a door ajar, and an untouched meal, And an overtoppled chair. And as we listened in the gloom Of that forsaken living-room A chill clutch on our breath We thought how ill-chance came to all And how the rock had been the death Of many a likely lad: How six had come to a sudden end, And three had gone stark mad: And one whom we'd all known as friend Had leapt from the lantern one still night, And fallen dead by the lighthouse wall: On the three we sought, And of what might yet befall. Like curs a glance has brought to heel, We listened, flinching there: And looked, and looked, on the untouched meal, And the overtoppled chair. We seemed to stand for an endless while, Though still no word was said, Three men alive on Flannan Isle, Who thought on three men dead. WILFRED GIBSON 411 THE GOLDEN VANITY THERE was a gallant ship, and a gallant ship was she, Eck iddle du, and the Lowlands low; And she was called The Goulden Vanitie. As she sailed to the Lowlands low. She had not sailed a league, a league but only three, As she sailed to the Lowlands low. Out spoke the little cabin-boy, out spoke he; "I'll give thee gold, and I'll give thee fee, And my eldest daughter thy wife shall be If you sink her off the Lowlands low.” "Then row me up ticht in a black bull's skin, And throw me oer deck-buird, sink I or swim. As ye sail to the Lowlands low." So they've rowed him up ticht in a black bull's skin, About, and about, and about went he, As they sailed to the Lowlands low. |