[Page 249]

THE LOSS OF THE ROEBUCK.

1 HOW oft by the lamp of the pale waning moon
2 Would Kitty steal out from the eye of the town;
3 On the beach as she stood, when the wild waves would roll,
4 Her eye shed a torrent just fresh from the soul;
5 And, as o'er the ocean the billows would stray,
6 Her sighs follow after, as moaning as they.
7 I saw, as the ship to the harbour drew near,
8 Hope redden her cheek then it blanch'd with chill fear;
9 She wish'd to inquire of the whispering crew
10 If they'd spoke with the Roebuck, or aught of her knew;
11 For long in conjecture her fate had been toss'd,
12 Nor knew we for certain the Roebuck was lost.
13 I pitied her feelings, and saw what she'd ask,
14 For Innocence ever looks through a thin mask;
15 I stepp'd up to Jack Oakum his sad head he shook,
16 And cast on sweet Kitty a side-glancing look:
17 "The Roebuck has founder'd the crew are no more,
18 Nor again shall Jack Bowling be welcom'd on shore!"
[Page 250]
19 Sweet Kitty, suspecting, laid hold of my arm:
20 "O tell me," she cried, "for my soul's in alarm;
21 Is she lost?" I said nothing; whilst Jack gave a sigh,
22 Then down dropp'd the curtain that hung o'er her eye;
23 Fleeting life for a moment seem'd willing to stay;
24 Just flutter'd, and then fled for ever away.
25 So droops the pale lily surcharg'd with a shower,
26 Sunk down as with sorrow so dies the sweet flower;
27 No sunbeam returning, no spring ever gay,
28 Can give back the soft breath once wafted away;
29 The eye-star once set never rises again,
30 Nor pilots one vessel more over the main.

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Title (in Source Edition): THE LOSS OF THE ROEBUCK.
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Genres: song

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Blamire, Susanna, 1747-1794. The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire “The muse of Cumberland.” Now for the first time collected by Henry Lonsdale, M.D. with a preface, memoir, and notes by Patrick Maxwell, ... Edinburgh: John Menzies, 61 Princes Street; R. Tyas, London; D. Robertson, Glasgow; and C. Thurnam, Carlisle. MDCCCXLII., 1842, pp. 249-250.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [42.256].)

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Other works by Susanna Blamire