Dear Jersey! jewel jubilant and green, <br />'Midst surge that splits steel ships, but sings to thee! <br />Thou fav'rest Frenchmen, though from England seen, <br />Oft tearful to that mistress 'North Countree'; <br />Returned the third time safely here to be, <br />I bless my bold Gibraltar of the Free. <br /> <br />Yon lighthouse stands forth like a fervent friend, <br />One who our tempest buffets back with zest, <br />And with twin-steeple, eke our helmsman's end, <br />Forms arms that beckon us upon thy breast; <br />Rose-posied pillow, crystallized with spray, <br />Where pools pellucid mirror sunny ray. <br /> <br />A frigate fretting yonder smoothest sky, <br />Like pauseless petrel poising o'er a wreck, <br />Strikes bright athwart the dearly dazzled eye, <br />Until it lessens to scarce certain speck, <br />'Neath Venus, sparkling on the agate-sprinkled beach, <br />For fisher's sailing-signal, just and true, <br />Until Aurora frights her from the view. <br /> <br />In summer, steamer-smoke spreads as thy veil, <br />And mists in winter sudden screen thy sight, <br />When at thy feet the galley-breakers wail <br />And toss their tops high o'er the lofty flight <br />Of horrid storm-worn steps with shark-like bite, <br />That only ope to swallow up in spite. <br /> <br />L'ENVOY. <br /> <br />But penitent in calm, thou givest a balm, <br />To many a man who's felt thy rage, <br />And many a sea-bird--thanks be heard!-- <br />Thou shieldest--sea-bird--exiled bard and sage.<br /><br />Victor Marie Hugo<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/jersey-2/
