Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/348

 338 CONSOLATIONS OF SOLITUDE

Loud through the blast the breakers roar, Huge precipices lower before, A ragged coast behind.

��Author of Life, with veiled face

That from thine unseen dwelling-place

The track of destiny dost trace !

Grant, when I reach the boundless sea

Of unexplored eternity,

And join at last the ghostly train

Which ploughs that all unmeasured main,

That I to thee with cheerful trust

Commit my freight of cumbrous dust !

Yet, when I cross that dismal sea.

Let me not unattended be,

Nor, when I bid farewell to land,

Ship with the Passions' boisterous band !

Ill company such mutinous crew,

On unknown seas, when tempests brew.

Far different messmates would I know :

Let Truth and Justice with me go —

Justice to steer, while at the bow

Truth looks ahead with piercing sight,

Watching for breakers through the night.

And, Conscience, do thou there attend.

Parent of Truth, and Justice' friend !

Wide awake while others sleep.

Thou the compass safe must keep.

Still watchful, lest we veer too far

From the fixed light of Virtue's star.

And let mild Resignation go with me.

Of temper tranquil in the stormiest sea ;

She, through the voyage so rough and long,

Shall lull the hours with plaintive song.

And, without fail, let Love be near.

�� �