Page:Felicia Hemans in The Winter's Wreath 1832 Original.pdf/2

53

Prayer at Sea after Victory.

BY MRS.HEMANS.

——————The land shall never rue,
So England to herself do prove but true.——Shakspeare.

Through evening's bright repose
A voice of prayer arose,
    When the sea-fight was done;
The sons of England knelt,
With hearts that now could melt,

For, on the wave, her battle had been won.

Round their tall ship, the main
Heaved with a dark red stain,
    Caught not from sunset's cloud;
While with the tide swept past
Pennon and shivered mast,

Which to the Ocean-Queen that day had bowed.

But free and fair on high,
A native of the sky,
    Her streamer met the breeze;
It flowed o'er fearless men,
Though hushed and child-like then,

Before their God they gathered on the seas.

Oh! did not thought of home
O'er each bold spirit come,
    As from the land, sweet gales?
In every word of prayer,
Had not some hearth a share

Some bower, inviolate 'midst England's vales?