NOT a sound wak’d the air, not a leaf was in motion;
As a mirror of glass was the bosom of ocean;
The vessel slid carelessly over the wave,—
No cares for the timid, no toil for the brave.
I listen’d— but not a faint murmur arose,—
The rocks and the waters no longer were foes;
They met unresisting, and stilly embrac’d;
It seem’d that the struggle of nature had ceas’d;
While the light pebble slumber’d unmov’d on the shore,
And the slow-coming tide crept insensibly o’er.
I thought ne’er was sunshine so brilliant, so gay,
As the beam that embellish’d the landscape that day.
And yet I beheld, where the vessel was mooring,
The seaman was busied his light bark securing.
I wonder’d to see, but they told me, e’en now
They perceiv’d where the storm was preparing to blow;
That a calm so continued, so silent, so still,
Was an omen of danger, a presage of ill;
For ’tis thus that the south-winds their forces convene,
In fury to burst on this beautiful scene.
I sigh’d as they spake—but the lesson was learn’d;
They prepared for the dangers their wisdom discern’d;
They mistrusted the sunshine, they doubted the calm,—
In the fairest of seasons they thought of the storm.
But I — I forgot when the danger was past,
How hard was the struggle, how bitter the blast.
I thought that my bosom no more would be rent
By the ills that had wasted, the cares that were spent.
While a beam of tranquillity lighten’d my breast,
While each wish was subdu’d, and each passion at rest,
I believ’d that the trials of earth were expended,
That the struggles of feeling for ever were ended,
And my bark would glide peaceably over the wave,
Till at anchor for ever, it rest in the grave!
And is it then so?—Am I destin’d to learn
That the calm is portentous of danger’s return?
O Lord, let my spirit be refug’d in thee,
Ere the coming of dangers thou bidst me foresee.
Ah! let me not trust this delusive repose:
Too blithely, too bravely my spirit arose;
And leaving the shelter to which it had flown,
Was renouncing thy strength to rely on its own.
Caroline Fry
(Caroline Fry)
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