[Editor: This poem by Menie Parkes was published in Poems (1867).]
Cast Adrift.
A little lonely boat
On the wild waves afloat;
Never a sail in sight,
Day darkening into night,
Stormy and wild!
So tossed my soul adrift,
High on sin’s waves uplift;
Vainly I sought for aid,
Loudly earth’s billows played
Round me in wrath.
Hoarsely the deep seas moan,
Roughly the wild winds groan;
Cold clogs the sailor’s heart,
“Oh, God, from earth to part,
And from the loving!”
So saw I horrors round,
So heard I terrors sound;
Helpless I lay and wept,
Deeming all succour slept,
While waked destruction.
Lo! on the orient verge!
Is it the breaker’s surge?
Nay, but a coming sail:
God, shall their senses fail,
Mad with new hope!
So thro’ my dark despair
What gleaming light is there?
Standeth a Cross that bears
Him that can cure all cares
In that He died.
Hark! to the thankful cry!
Mark you the upturned eye!
Snatched from an ocean-grave,
Now their first tear-drops lave
Out all their sorrows!
So I, with hope on high,
Cling to the Cross for aye:
So doth my worship rise,
Swelling to reach the skies,
And thank the Saviour.
Source:
Menie Parkes, Poems, F. Cunninghame, Sydney, [1867], pages 65-66
Editor’s notes:
aye = always, forever
lave = to lap up against or wash up against
Saviour = in a religious context, Jesus or God
standeth = archaic form of “stands”
succour = assistance, help, or support, particularly in a time of distress or difficulty (also spelt “succor”)
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