Page:Poems for the Sea.djvu/76

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72
Poems for the Sea.


The placid Moon with pitying eye,
   Look'd lone and silent down,
Encircling them with holy light,
   As with a martyr's crown,
Then shrank within a fleecy cloud,—
   Hoarse shrieked the impetuous main,
The deep sea closed, and where were they?
   Go ask the angel train!

Ah! dauntless hearts that night were whelmed
   Beneath the billowy high,
And temples white with honored years,
   And woman's love-lit eye,
And clinging to its mother's breast,
   In visions soft and deep,
Unwakened innocence went down
   Amid the pearls to sleep.

The eye that saw that iceberg dread
   Come drifting darkly down,
Destruction in its wintry breath
   And on its monster crown;