Let Us Turn Hitherward Our Bark.

R. C. TRENCH.     "Let us turn hitherward our bark," they cried,      "And, 'mid the blisses of this happy isle,     Past toil forgetting and to come, abide      In joyfulness awhile.     And then, refreshed, our tasks resume again,      If other tasks we yet are bound unto,     Combing the hoary tresses of the main      With sharp swift keel anew."     O heroes, that had once a nobler aim,      O heroes, sprung from many a godlike line,     What will ye do, unmindful of your fame,      And of your race divine?     But they, by these prevailing voices now      Lured, evermore draw nearer to the land,     Nor saw the wrecks of many a goodly prow,      That strewed that fatal strand;     Or seeing, feared not - warning taking none      From the plain doom of all who went before,     Whose bones lay bleaching in the wind and sun,      And whitened all the shore.     "QUIN HUC, FREMEBANT."     "Quin hue," fremebant, "dirigimus ratem:     Hic, dote laeti divitis insulae,      Paullisper haeremus, futuri      Nec memores operis, nec acti:     "Curas refecti cras iterabimus,     Si qua supersunt emeritis novae      Pexisse pernices acuta      Canitiem pelagi carina."     O rebus olim nobilioribus     Pares: origo Di quibus ac Deae      Heroes! oblitine famiae      Haec struitis, generisque summi?     Atqui propinquant jam magis ac magis,     Ducti magistra voce, solum: neque      Videre prorarum nefandas      Fragmina nobilium per oras;     Vidisse seu non poenitet - ominis     Incuriosos tot praeeuntium,      Quorum ossa sol siccantque venti,      Candet adhuc quibus omnis ora.