The Wreck by John Ruskin. Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. 1895. A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

The Wreck

John Ruskin (1819–1900)


ITS masts of might, its sails so free,
Had borne the scatheless keel
Through many a day of darken’d sea,
And many a storm of steel;
When all the winds were calm, it met	5
(With home-returning prore)
With the lull
Of the waves
On a low lee shore.

The crest of the conqueror	10
On many a brow was bright;
The dew of many an exile’s eye
Had dimm’d the dancing sight;
And for love and for victory
One welcome was in store,	15
In the lull
Of the waves
On a low lee shore.

The voices of the night are mute
Beneath the moon’s eclipse;	20
The silence of the fitful flute
Is on the dying lips.
The silence of my lonely heart
Is kept forevermore
In the lull	25
Of the waves
On a low lee shore.