Poems (Brown)/The Burial at Sea

by Carrie L. Brown

THE BURIAL AT SEA. 

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The deep dark sea was tossing
 Within its rocky bed,
And wildly flew the sea-birds
 In numbers over head.

The proud white ship was sailing,
 But mourners clustered there,
Weeping, with heavy anguish,
 Over the young and fair.

For days and nights we nursed him,
 And held his slender form,
And furled the sails so noiselessly
 To shield him from the storm.

We prayed and wept, and wept and smiled,
 And sighed {or land in vain;
The sea-cliffs towered overhead,
 And blew the wind and rain.

At last, on one calm, lovely day,
 The child lay down to die,
Beneath—the wild, dark, dashing waves,
 Above—the clear, blue sky.

We robed him in his garments white,
 And wrapped him in the sheet,
And weeping mourners gathered round,
 Our darling's face to greet.

The voice of prayer then rose aloft
 To Him who never sleeps;
One hurried kiss—then all was o'er:
 We laid him in the deep.

The green, damp rocks his pillows are,
 The coral reefs his bed,
And seaweed gathers o'er his form,
 And twines around his head.

Our noble ship sped swiftly on,
 And days and nights did pass,
And, gathered in one stricken band,
 We reached the land at last.

Dark rose the cliffs on Afric's sands,
 But brought no balm to me;
My thoughts still lingered round the spot
 Of the buried one at sea.