Sea Poems

THE NUN

A lone palm leans in the moonlight,Over a convent wall.The sea below is waking and breakingWith a calm heave and fall.A young nun sits at a window;For Heaven she is too fair;Yet even the dove of God might nestIn her bosom beating there.A lone ship sails from the harbour:Whom does it bear away?Her lover who, sin-hearted, has partedAnd left her but to pray?She has no lover, nor everHas heard afar love's sigh.Only the Convent's vesper vowHas ever dimmed her eye.For naught knows she of her beauty,More than the palm of its peace:And none shall cross her portal, to mortalDesires to bend her knees.The ways of the world have flowers,And any who will pluck those;But in His hand, against all harm,God still will keep some rose.

LAST SIGHT OF LAND

The clouds in woe hang far and dim;I look again, and lo,Only a faint and shadow lineOf shore – I watch it go.The gulls have left the ship and wheelBack to the cliff's gray wraith.Will it be so of all our thoughtsWhen we set sail on Death?And what will the last sight be of lifeAs lone we fare and fast?Grief and a face we love in mist —Then night and awe too vast?Or the dear light of Hope – like that,Oh, see, from the lost shoreKindling and calling "Onward, youShall reach the Evermore!"THE END