Narrative and Legendary Poems: Barclay of Ury, and Others - From Volume I., the Works of Whittier by John Greenleaf Whittier
page 97 of 103 (94%)
page 97 of 103 (94%)
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The blackening sky, at midnight, its starry lights
denied, And far and low the thunder of tempest prophesied. Blotted out were all the coast-lines, gone were rock, and wood, and sand; Grimly anxious stood the skipper with the rudder in his hand, And questioned of the darkness what was sea and what was land. And the preacher heard his dear ones, nestled round him, weeping sore, "Never heed, my little children! Christ is walking on before; To the pleasant land of heaven, where the sea shall be no more." All at once the great cloud parted, like a curtain drawn aside, To let down the torch of lightning on the terror far and wide; And the thunder and the whirlwind together smote the tide. There was wailing in the shallop, woman's wail and man's despair, A crash of breaking timbers on the rocks so sharp and bare, And, through it all, the murmur of Father Avery's |
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