Classic Poem

I stood on the deck alone at night beneath a murky sky.
The coming storm was heralded by the long waves rolling high.
Afar, afar in the darkness I marked their gleaming spray —
Blue lines of kindling fire that softly burned and died away.
Then darkness fell like a pall on the waters and over me
And the hissing rain with fury beat down the frantic sea.

Wrapped from the storm securely I courted the tempest's might.
I felt a thrilling pleasure in the great abysmal night
With the wet wind whistling through my beard and sweeping across my eyes,
Listening to voices such as I never before had heard arise —
Voices calling, calling — shadows pursued and found,
Shrieking aloft in the booming blast — falling, falling, and drowned.

And I felt the power and beauty of music unknown before —
Music to rouse the godliness and the majesty of man.
The ship swept the diapason of the thundering ocean floor
And down with the leaping lightning the storm's high treble ran,
And far, afar along the sea in the gulf of darkness bowled
The mighty midnight symphony was rapturously rolled.