“Long in silence they watched the receding sail of the vessel,
Much endeared to them all, as something living and human;
Then, as if filled with the spirit, and wrapt in a vision prophetic,
Baring his hoary head, the excellent Elder of Plymouth
Said, "Let us pray!" and they prayed, and thanked
the Lord and took courage.
Mournfully sobbed the waves at the base of the rock, and
above them
Bowed and whispered the wheat on the hill of death, and
their kindred
Seemed to awake in their graves, and to join in the prayer
that they uttered.
Sun-illumined and white, on the eastern verge of the ocean
Gleamed the departing sail, like a marble slab in a
graveyard;
Buried beneath it lay forever all hope of escaping.”
– from The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow
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