Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A NUN, AT SEA, by CALE YOUNG RICE Poet's Biography First Line: Mother of god, they are sending me to rome Last Line: The sea is a terrible thing! Subject(s): Life; Nuns; Religion; Rome, Italy; Sea; Theology; Ocean | ||||||||
Mother of God, they are sending me to Rome, Where our Saint's to be canonized, But the sea is a terrible thing! I walk the deck, telling my beads, all day. The tides flow under my feet and I fear the way. To say an Ave in high St. Peter's dome Was all my desire in the cell I kept at home. But now my desires are many, and wild as foam. The sea is a terrible thing! I am troubled by so much freedom, so much space. Too scantly clad, young girls go fluttering by. I drop my glance, but... with a wistful sigh. The sea is a terrible thing! Immodesty shuns our convent veil at home; We robe and unrobe ourselves always in the dark. Yet here -- on a very pilgrimage to Rome -- I covet a beauty that every eye would mark! A beauty that once I had; for, it is so; Young men once gazed as ardently on me. My limbs were lithe as the swift limbs of a doe. The sea is a terrible thing! My lips found other lips as fond to meet, Not litanies, only litanies to repeat. Mother of God, such love was bliss, complete. The sea is a terrible thing! Tonight they will dance on deck, to tempting strains. The moon will be full; bosoms will rise and fall With tides of the heart -- warm passion-tides whose pains Are sweeter to youth than the joys of Heaven, all! The moon will be full. The sea is a terrible thing! Lone below I shall lie and racked recall How a young man looked with pity today on me Then at a young girl's lips -- then at the sea... The sea is a terrible thing! Would I were safe at home, safe in my cell From these wild wicked thoughts. A crucifix Is better for souls than body-dreams that mix With mad delights in the heart -- and so enspell. Would I were there, content with robe and hood, And a rosary for my only ornament, Not here, thinking that life's few days were meant For more than tending a holy chapel bell. Mother of God, protect my wandering. The sea is a terrible thing! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HALL OF OCEAN LIFE by JOHN HOLLANDER JULY FOURTH BY THE OCEAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS BOATS IN A FOG by ROBINSON JEFFERS CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE FIGUREHEAD by LEONIE ADAMS A CHARM TO BRING CHILDREN (EGYPT, A.D. 100) by CALE YOUNG RICE |
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