Poems (Kennedy)/Ship Wrecked
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SHIPWRECKED
HIGH on the beach it lies, its prow
That cut the crystal of the deep
And clove a path where billows sweep,
Amid the golden shallows now
Is lifted helpless to the sun.
That cut the crystal of the deep
And clove a path where billows sweep,
Amid the golden shallows now
Is lifted helpless to the sun.
Some mighty tempest drove it far
From its proud course, and tossed it where
Tides may not claim it from despair
Or drift it o'er the harbor bar
To sail the world-ports once again.
From its proud course, and tossed it where
Tides may not claim it from despair
Or drift it o'er the harbor bar
To sail the world-ports once again.
A sullen wreck, upon the strand
"Twill lie, late rover of the sea,
Until some storm shall set it free
From clinging weed and cloying sand
And give it back to wind and waves.
"Twill lie, late rover of the sea,
Until some storm shall set it free
From clinging weed and cloying sand
And give it back to wind and waves.
******
Beside the track of life they wait,
Self-wrecked through passions undenied
Or whelmed with burdens multiplied,
The human derelicts of fate,
The men whom God seems to forget.
Self-wrecked through passions undenied
Or whelmed with burdens multiplied,
The human derelicts of fate,
The men whom God seems to forget.
Seems to forget and set apart
Because in sloth their golden day
Of love and trust was sinned away.
(Perchance He left them that some heart
Might higher reach through servitude.)
Because in sloth their golden day
Of love and trust was sinned away.
(Perchance He left them that some heart
Might higher reach through servitude.)
Only a voice clear-toned with hope,
Only a hand with faith made strong
Can lift them from the slough of wrong
And set them on the upward slope—
These derelicts of life and love.
Only a hand with faith made strong
Can lift them from the slough of wrong
And set them on the upward slope—
These derelicts of life and love.