CAPE COD BALLADS

  Where leap the long Atlantic swells
    In foam-streaked stretch of hill and dale,
  Where shrill the north-wind demon yells,
    And flings the spindrift down the gale;
  Where, beaten 'gainst the bending mast,
    The frozen raindrop clings and cleaves,
  With steadfast front for calm or blast
    His battered schooner rocks and heaves.

  To same the gain, to some the loss,
    To each the chance, the risk, the fight:
  For men must die that men may live—
    Lord, may we steer our course aright..

  The dripping deck beneath him reels,
    The flooded scuppers spout the brine;
  He heeds them not, he only feels
    The tugging of a tightened line.

  The grim white sea-fog o'er him throws
    Its clammy curtain, damp and cold;
  He minds it not—his work he knows,
    'T is but to fill an empty hold.

  Oft, driven through the night's blind wrack,
    He feels the dread berg's ghastly breath,
  Or hears draw nigh through walls of black
    A throbbing engine chanting death;
  But with a calm, unwrinkled brow
    He fronts them, grim and undismayed,
  For storm and ice and liner's bow—
    These are but chances of the trade.

  Yet well he knows—where'er it be,
    On low Cape Cod or bluff Cape Ann—
  With straining eyes that search the sea
    A watching woman waits her man:
  He knows it, and his love is deep,
    But work is work, and bread is bread,
  And though men drown and women weep
    The hungry thousands must be fed.

  To some the gain, to some the loss,
    To each his chance, the game with Fate:
  For men must die that men may live—
    Dear Lord, be kind to those who wait.

    Oh, the song of