Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Inchcape Rock

The Bell at Sea

By Felicia Hemans (1793–1835)

The dangerous islet called the Bell Rock [the Inchcape Rock], on the coast of Forfarshire used formerly to be marked only by a bell, which was so placed as to be swung by the motion of the waves, when the tide rose above the rock. A lighthouse has since been erected there.

WHEN the tide’s billowy swell

Had reached its height,

Then tolled the rock’s lone bell

Sternly by night.

Far over cliff and surge

Swept the deep sound,

Making each wild wind’s dirge

Still more profound.

Yet that funereal tone

The sailor blessed,

Steering through darkness on

With fearless breast.

E’en so may we, that float

On life’s wide sea,

Welcome each warning note,

Stern though it be!