My soul is shipwrecked in the night Upon a black and vacant shore; A flood of murky air before, Of surging air to left and right. The waves roll in, the waves roll in, And each a sombre spectre bears, The writhing forms of many cares, The coiling forms of many a sin; Neglected tasks that frown austere, Glimpses of old friends angry, gleams Of dead delights and drifting dreams And gibbering ghosts of empty fear. Out on the flood, the faces pale Of drowning hopes, so fair, so fair; Or, tossing here and floating there, The tattered rags of fortune's sail; And, wrenched from out that midnight grave, The white corpse of a passion sweet, Rolled by the darkness to my feet, And then snatched back into the wave. My eyes are straining through the deep, This surging night that has no end; Make haste, O pitying Christ, and send Thy blessed rescue bark of sleep! The ship came not, but in its stead Its Master stood upon the shore; And lo! the waves were black no more; And lo! a gleam from overhead. He touched my hot and throbbing eyes, The Master, with His loving hand, And softly on that midnight strand There grew the light of paradise. Those hateful forms of sin and care Flung at me by that ghostly sea, -- I know not if they ceased to be, -- I saw them not, for Christ was there. Still sleepless stretched the night away, But joyfully, for Christ and I Together read the opening sky, And watched the dawning of the day. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VIGNETTES OVERSEAS: 10. STRESA by SARA TEASDALE ROAST LEVIATHAN by LOUIS UNTERMEYER A BIRTHDAY by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI KING EDWARD THE THIRD by WILLIAM BLAKE NOONDAY REST by MATHILDE BLIND THE SOUTH-WEST WIND by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN INAUGURATION SONNET: WILLIAM JEWETT TUCKER by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE |