Page:Poems for the Sea.djvu/44

And mystic voices here and there
From mast and rudder—cried "beware!"
And boast ye nought of spell or charm,
Your wanderer o'er the deep to arm?
No shield or panoply to cast
Around his breast mid danger's blast?
   A Book ye have, of wondrous power,
Go, press it on his parting hour,
And make the Bible's voice divine
His pilot, while he ploughs the brine.
   So shall an Oracle be near,
Like angel-whisper in his ear,
From swelling sail, from humble chest
Where home's lov'd tokens garner'd rest,
From dim forecastle's crowded throng
Mid oath and bacchanalian song,
From breaking dawn's uncertain light,
From lonely watch, at dead of night,
Even from the tempest's blackening cloud,
The iceberg dread, the shatter'd shroud,
The whelming surge, that voice shall be
A guide to immortality.