Classic Poem

'T IS moonlight on the ocean; and the mighty waters sleep,
Save where the line of radiance comes across the pathless deep:
There billows weave a fairy dance, and sparkle in the light
Which falls so softly on them now, amid the hush of night.

I stand upon the hill-top green, and gaze far o'er the main,
And see the rocky islets there, and hear the waves again,
Which beat in gentle cadences upon the pebbly shore,
And 'mind me of a distant isle my eyes may see no more.

Home, home, beyond those waters! O home so dear to me!
Not e'en the crested billows can divide my heart from thee.
Are moonbeams resting on the waves which break along thy shore?
And do the eyes I long to greet gaze on them as before?

Moonlight upon the ocean: oh! there is no fairer scene
This side the pearly gates of heaven, for mortal eyes, I ween;
And, while I gaze, my heart ascends with grateful praise to Him
Before whose beauteous holiness the sheen of earth grows dim.

Father and Saviour! Spirit pure! my heart ascends to thee,
That, wheresoe'er upon this earth my weary feet may be,
My eyes may gaze on scenes so fair through Faith's revealing glass,
That trustfully toward future days my steps may onward pass.

For he who sends the moonlight now to make the deep so fair—
God's smile upon the waters lark when gloomy night is there—
Can send his Spirit's joyful light to gleam along my way,—
A line of holy radiance and a part of heaven's day.

O God! I thank thee for the hours, when, standing by the sea,
Alone, or with beloved friends, my heart is drawn to thee;
For, while its quiet loveliness my spirit doth control,
This moonlight on the ocean shall be sunlight in my soul.