The shower of moonlight falls as still and clear <br /> Upon this desert main <br />As where sweet flowers some pastoral garden cheer <br /> With fragrance after rain: <br />The wild winds rustle in piping shrouds, <br /> As in the quivering trees: <br />Like summer fields, beneath the shadowy clouds <br /> The yielding waters darken in the breeze. <br /> <br />Thou too art here with thy soft inland tones, <br /> Mother of our new birth; <br />The lonely ocean learns thy orisons, <br /> And loves thy sacred mirth: <br />When storms are high, or when the fires of war <br /> Come lightening round our course, <br />Thou breath'st a note like music from afar, <br /> Tempering rude hearts with calm angelic force. <br /> <br />Far, far away, the homesick seaman's hoard, <br /> Thy fragrant tokens live, <br />Like flower-leaves in a previous volume stored, <br /> To solace and relieve <br />Some heart too weary of the restless world; <br /> Or like thy Sabbath Cross, <br />That o'er this brightening billow streams unfurled, <br /> Whatever gale the labouring vessel toss. <br /> <br />Oh, kindly soothing in high Victory's hour, <br /> Or when a comrade dies, <br />In whose sweet presence Sorrow dares not lower, <br /> Nor Expectation rise <br />Too high for earth; what mother's heart could spare <br /> To the cold cheerless deep <br />Her flower and hope? but Thou art with him there, <br /> Pledge of the untired arm and eye that cannot sleep: <br /> <br />The eye that watches o'er wild Ocean's dead, <br /> Each in his coral cave, <br />Fondly as if the green turf wrapt his head <br /> Fast by his father's grave, - <br />One moment, and the seeds of life shall spring <br /> Out of the waste abyss, <br />And happy warriors triumph with their King <br /> In worlds without a sea, unchanging orbs of bliss.<br /><br />John Keble<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/forms-of-prayer-to-be-used-at-sea/
