Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/147

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
REV. H. H. DUGMORE.
121

THE OCEAN—STORM AND CALM.

I look upon the ocean. Far away,
A fleet of thunder-clouds is sailing by.
High in mid heaven the ærial canvas swells,
And proudly scorns the breeze's proffered aid;
Instinct with its own spirit's breath of life,
That bears it onward in its majesty;
While ever and anon the signal flash
From van, and rear, and centre, tells of might
Resistless, stern, and slow, and dark, and grand:
Its shadows sweep o'er ocean's heaving billows;
While avant-couriers, on the lightning's wing,
Herald its coming to the distant realms
Beyond the horizon's verge.


'Tis sunset on the ocean! Let us gaze:
A Sabbath sunset; and all things combine
To give it peace and beauty; for the winds
Have folded their broad pinions, and have sunk
To peaceful slumber on the ocean's breast—
The sportive waves, that tossed their spray erewhile,
Displume their crests in reverence for the hour,
And all is calm around.

The curtain cloud
That hung o'er all the west throws wide its folds,
And in the clear blue ether far away
Bright islands of the blest seem floating, free
From the rough cares that fret this lower world,
And radiant in a glory all divine.

Rev. H. H. Dugmore.