They who go down to the relentless deep, <br />After long horrible death of cold and drought <br />Ere the last spark of flickering life goes out, <br />Give to the bitter waves that o'er them sweep, <br />The secret of their agony to keep; <br />Hoping that when the never-satiate sea, <br />In its huge depths had swallowed them for ever, <br />To human hands and eyes it shall deliver <br />The record of their piteous misery. <br />So I unto these pages do commend <br />The story of my shipwreck dire for thee, <br />Where thou shalt read, how long before the end, <br />I strove, and clung, and prayed, and vainly cried, <br />Trusting in thee and heaven, until I died.<br /><br />Frances Anne Kemble<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/written-in-a-diary/
