Poems for the Sea/The Angel of the Waters

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916113Poems for the Sea — The Angel of the WatersLydia Sigourney

THE ANGEL OF THE WATERS.



Full flow'd Bethesda's mantling pool
   While forth from hall and bower,
Throng'd the wan victims of disease
   To test its healing power,
Yet still, in calm repose it lay,
   Though many a straining eye
For its first, infant ripple watch'd,
   With pain's impatient sigh.

'Tis troubled!—Man of science say,
   What moves its mystic tide?

Doth some strange planet from its throne
   Attract yon heaving tide?
Thou answerest not. The christian sees
   An Angel break its rest,
And bring the renovating flood,
   O'er each sad sufferer's breast.

Oh! if the fever of the heart,
   Or palsy of the brain,
Should smite us, Father! till we find
   All earthly helpers vain,
Send forth thine Angel to the stream
   That holy health can give;
And bid him stir its blessed wave,
   That we may bathe, and live.

And for our brethren of the Sea,
   Who oft neglected pine,
Incite our sympathizing care
   And wake a zeal divine,

Till we, their penury enrich
   With Heaven's eternal gem,
And what the Angel did for us,
   Delighted, do for them.