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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A NUN, AT SEA by CALE YOUNG RICE

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,
@3But the sea is a terrible thing!@1
I walk the deck, telling my beads, all day.
The tides flow under my feet and I fear the way.
To say an @3Ave@1 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.
@3The sea is a terrible thing!@1
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.
@3The sea is a terrible thing!@1
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.
@3The sea is a terrible thing!@1
My lips found other lips as fond to meet,
Not litanies, only litanies to repeat.
Mother of God, such love was bliss, complete.
@3The sea is a terrible thing!@1
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. @3The sea is a terrible thing!@1
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...
@3The sea is a terrible thing!@1
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.
@3The sea is a terrible thing!@1



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