Shipwreck

The night is dense; the waves climb wild and high;
Our ship drives on, to shipwreck speeding fast.
How could it stand before these waves, this blast
That whirls between white billows and black sky?
Comrades, the end is near, and we must die!
No beacon light upon our way is cast;
We cannot see rude rocks and quicksands vast;
Though well we know the snares that wait near by.

When will it suck us in, that fatal sand;
Or the rock rend us through the boiling wave?
Alas, man cannot, and God will not save; —
Yet if strong Love but took the helm in hand.
Then not for us the wide sea's clamorous grave.
But sudden summer, in some fair, far land.