Night and a starless sky, <br />Ship on wild billows tost, <br />With tattered sails and opening seams, <br />And deck bestrewn with falling beams, <br />Swift plunging to her doom. <br /> <br />Red lightnings round her flash, <br />Loud thunders crash and roar, <br />And the noble vessel mounts the crest <br />Of the reeking waves, then sinks to rest <br />Mid carnival of woe. <br /> <br />The Petrel soars aloft, <br />Wailing her hymn of death, <br />And the dirge like sounds pierce the blackened sky, <br />While the crew send forth one anguished cry, <br />Sinking to lowest depth. <br /> <br />Some ships go out to sea <br />That never more return, <br />Souls that from heaven in infancy come, <br />Tarnished and ruined by sin may become, <br />Like the Dove to the Ark they never return, <br />But sink as ship to doom.<br /><br />Mary Weston Fordham<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/shipwreck-10/
