She is far from the land

Cables entangling her,

Shipspars for mangling her,

Ropes, sure of strangling her;

Blocks over-dangling her;

Tiller to batter her,

Topmast to shatter her,

Tobacco to spatter her;

Boreas blustering,

Boatswain quite flustering,

Thunder clouds mustering

To blast her with sulphur—

If the deep don’t engulph her;

Sometimes fear’s scrutiny

Pries out a mutiny,

Sniffs conflagration,

Or hints at starvation:—

All the sea-dangers,

Buccaneers, rangers,

Pirates, and Sallee-men,

Algerine galleymen,

Tornadoes and typhons,

And horrible syphons,

And submarine travels

Thro’ roaring sea-navels;

Every thing wrong enough,

Long boat not long enough,

Vessel not strong enough;

Pitch marring frippery,

The deck very slippery,

And the cabin—built sloping,

The Captain a-toping,

And the Mate a blasphemer,

That names his Redeemer,—

With inward uneasiness;

The cook, known by greasiness,

The victuals beslubber’d,

Her bed—in a cupboard;

Things of strange christening,

Snatch’d in her listening,

Blue lights and red lights

And mention of dead lights,

And shrouds made a theme of,

Things horrid to dream of,—

And buoys in the water

To fear all exhort her;

Her friend no Leander,

Herself no sea gander,

And ne’er a cork jacket

On board of the packet;

The breeze still a stiffening,

The trumpet quite deafening;

Thoughts of repentance,

And doomsday and sentence;

Everything sinister,

Not a church minister,—

Pilot a blunderer,

Coral reefs under her,

Ready to sunder her;

Trunks tipsy-topsy,

The ship in a dropsy;

Waves oversurging her,

Syrens a-dirgeing her;

Sharks all expecting her,

Sword-fish dissecting her,

Crabs with their hand-vices

Punishing land vices;

Sea-dogs and unicorns,

Things with no puny horns,

Mermen carnivorous—

“Good Lord deliver us!”