A First Series of Hymns and Songs/Sacred Songs/The Little Mariners' Hymn to the Blessed Virgin

by Cecilia Mary Caddell

2. The Little Mariners' Hymn to the Blessed Virgin.

A little boat with snow-white sail
Is floating on the summer sea;
Oh, lightly moves it with the gale,
And all its crew are children three.
Kind Heaven, grant no harm betide
Their fragile bark when night falls dim;
And hark, the breeze bears far and wide
The little fishers' evening hymn.

"Poor fishermen, too weak are we
To stem the rolling ocean's wave;
And, Mary, we have turn'd to thee,
A mother's gentle help to crave.
Hail, Mary! star of ocean, hail!
Oh, hear the hymn we sing to thee,
The while we trim our shifting sail,
And shape our course across the sea.

Oh, deign our feeble toil to bless,
And keep old Ocean calm the while;
Oh, grant us, Mary, good success,
And make our home with plenty smile.
Hail, &c.

Sweet Mother, light our outward track,
Poor helpless little fishers three,
And bring our boat in safety back,
Across the wide and pathless sea.
Hail, &c.

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