Becalmed upon the equatorial seas, <br /> A ship of gold lay on a sea of fire; <br /> Each sail and rope and spar, as in desire, <br />Mutely besought the kisses of a breeze; <br />Low laughter told the mariners at ease; <br /> Sweet sea-songs hymned the red sun's fun'ral pyre: <br /> Yet One, with eyes that never seemed to tire, <br />Watched for the storm, nursed on the thunder's knees. <br /> <br />Thou watcher of the spirit's inner keep, <br />Scanning Death's lone, illimitable deep, <br /> Spread outward to the far immortal shore! <br />While the vault sleeps, from the upheaving deck, <br />Thou see'st the adamantine reefs that wreck, <br /> And Life's low shoals, where lusting billows roar.<br /><br />David MacDonald Ross<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-watch-on-deck/