Poems (Odom)/Impromptu by the Sea
IMPROMPTU BY THE SEA.
I stand on the wave-washed shore, to-day,Watching the breakers for miles away; Miles of a terribly raging sea, Tossing its waters so high and free.Madly and wildly surging along,Dancing and singing its warlike song; Dashing its white arms to and fro; Now fiercely grappling the undertow;Then dragging its great skirts back again,And flapping them over its broad domain. Oh! 't is a glorious sight for me, This angry, leaping, and boiling sea;Filling my soul with a solemn hush,Hurling its foam with a mighty crush, As though 't were lashed with a whirling rod, Held in the hand of an angry God.Only the great and Almighty will,Can say to the awful waves: "Be still." Just so are the waters of human life, Tossing forever in pain and strife,Only in heaven, all storms shall cease,Where Jesus of Nazareth gives us peace.