Forms Of Prayer To Be Used At Sea

John Keble 1792 (Fairford) – 1866 (Bournemouth)



The shower of moonlight falls as still and clear
     Upon this desert main
As where sweet flowers some pastoral garden cheer
     With fragrance after rain:
The wild winds rustle in piping shrouds,
     As in the quivering trees:
Like summer fields, beneath the shadowy clouds
  The yielding waters darken in the breeze.

Thou too art here with thy soft inland tones,
     Mother of our new birth;
The lonely ocean learns thy orisons,
     And loves thy sacred mirth:
When storms are high, or when the fires of war
     Come lightening round our course,
Thou breath'st a note like music from afar,
  Tempering rude hearts with calm angelic force.

Far, far away, the homesick seaman's hoard,
     Thy fragrant tokens live,
Like flower-leaves in a previous volume stored,
     To solace and relieve
Some heart too weary of the restless world;
     Or like thy Sabbath Cross,
That o'er this brightening billow streams unfurled,
  Whatever gale the labouring vessel toss.

Oh, kindly soothing in high Victory's hour,
     Or when a comrade dies,
In whose sweet presence Sorrow dares not lower,
     Nor Expectation rise
Too high for earth; what mother's heart could spare
     To the cold cheerless deep
Her flower and hope? but Thou art with him there,
  Pledge of the untired arm and eye that cannot sleep:

The eye that watches o'er wild Ocean's dead,
     Each in his coral cave,
Fondly as if the green turf wrapt his head
     Fast by his father's grave, -
One moment, and the seeds of life shall spring
     Out of the waste abyss,
And happy warriors triumph with their King
  In worlds without a sea, unchanging orbs of bliss.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:23 min read
26

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCD XECEXFXF GXGXHIHI JKJKLMLM NONOPQPQ
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,596
Words 271
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8

John Keble

John Keble was an English churchman and poet, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. Keble College, Oxford was named after him. more…

All John Keble poems | John Keble Books

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