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(Attributed to Poe)
[From The Yankee, December, 1829.]
MAGICIAN
THOU dark, sea-stirring storm,
Whence comest thou in thy might —
Nay — wait, thou dim and dreamy form —
Storm spirit, I call thee — ’t is mine of right —
Arrest thee in thy troubled flight.
STORM SPIRIT
Thou askest me whence I came —
I came o’er the sleeping sea,
It roused at my torrent of storm and flame,
And it howled aloud in its agony,
And swelled to the sky — that sleeping sea.
Thou askest me what I met —
A ship from the Indian shore,
A tall proud ship with her sails all set —
Far down in the sea that ship I bore,
My storms wild rushing wings before.
And her men will forever lie,
Below the unquiet sea;
And tears will dim full many an eye, [page 157:]
Of those who shall widows and orphans be,
And their days be years — for their misery.
A boat with a starving crew —
For hunger they howled and swore;
While the blood from a fellow's veins they drew
I came upon them with rush and roar —
Far under the waves that boat I bore.
Two ships in a fearful fight —
When a hundred guns did flash
I came upon them — no time for flight —
But under the sea their timbers crash
And over their guns the wild waters dash
A wretch on a single plank —
And I tossed him on the shore —
A night and a day of the sea he drank,
But the wearied wretch to the land I bore —
And now he walketh the earth once more —
MAGICIAN
Storm spirit — go on thy path —
The spirit has spread his wings —
And comes on the sea with a rush of wrath,
As a war horse when he springs —
And over the earth his winds he flings —
And over the earth — nor stop nor stay —
The winds of the storm king go out on their way.
P——
[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 156:]
1The punctuation throughout is the author's — by desire.
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Notes:
None.
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[S:0 - JHW11, 1911] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - The Magician (ed. J. H. Whitty, 1911)