# Littell's Living Age/Volume 137/Issue 1771/Sorrow on the Sea

* SORROW ON THE SEA.
* "There is sorrow on the sea — it cannot be quiet." Jer. xlix. 23.. The following fine poem, written by the late Captain M. A. S. Hare, of the "Eurydice," in a friend's album some years since, will be read with mournful interest.
* I stood on the shore of the beautiful sea,
* As the billows were roaming wild and free;
* Onward they came with unfailing force,
* Then backward turned in their restless course;
* Ever and ever sounded their roar,
* Foaming and dashing against the shore;
* Ever and ever they rose and fell,
* With heaving and sighing and mighty swell;
* And deep seemed calling aloud to deep,
* Lest the murmuring waves should drop to sleep.
* In summer and winter, by night and by day,
* Thro' cloud and sunshine holding their way;
* Oh! when shall the ocean’s troubled breast
* Calmly and quietly sink into rest?
* Oh! when shall the waves' wild murmuring cease,
* And the mighty waters be hushed to peace?
* It cannot be quiet — it cannot rest;
* There must be heaving on ocean's breast;
* The tide must ebb, and the tide must flow,
* Whilst the changing seasons come and go.
* Still from the depths of that hidden store
* There are treasures tossed up along the shore;
* Tossed by the billows—then seized again —
* Carried away by the rushing main.
* Oh, strangely glorious and beautiful sea!
* Sounding forever mysteriously,
* Why are thy billows still rolling on,
* With their wild and sad and musical tone?
* Why is there never repose for thee?
* Why slumberest thou not, O mighty sea?
* Then the ocean's voice I seemed to hear,
* Mournfully, solemnly—sounding near,
* Like a wail sent up from the caves below,
* Fraught with dark memories of human woe,
* Telling of loved ones buried there,
* Of the dying shriek and the dying prayer;
* Telling of hearts still watching in vain
* For those who shall never come again;
* Of the widow's groan, the orphan's cry,
* And the mother's speechless agony.
* Oh, no, the ocean can never rest
* With such secrets hidden within its breast.
* There is sorrow written upon the sea,
* And dark and stormy its waves must be;
* It cannot be quiet, it cannot sleep,
* That dark, relentless, and stormy deep.
* But a day will come, a blessed day,
* When earthly sorrow shall pass away,
* When the hour of anguish shall turn to peace,
* And even the roar of the waves shall oease.
* Then out from its deepest and darkest bed
* Old Ocean shall render up her dead,
* And, freed from the weight of human woes,
* Shall quietly sink in her last repose.
* No sorrow shall ever be written then
* On the depths of the sea or the hearts of men,
* But heaven and earth renewed shall shine,
* Still clothed in glory and light divine.
* Then where shall the billows of ocean be?
* Gone! for in heaven shall be "no more sea."
* 'Tis a bright and beautiful thing of earth,
* That cannot share in the soul’s "new birth;"
* 'Tis a life of murmur and tossing and spray A
* nd at resting-time it must pass away.
* But, oh! thou glorious and beautiful sea,
* There is health and joy and blessing in thee:
* Solemnly, sweetly, I hear thy voice,
* Bidding me weep and yet rejoice —
* Weep for the loved ones buried beneath,
* Rejoice in Him who has conquered death;
* Weep for the sorrowing and tempest-tossed,
* Rejoice in Him who has saved the lost;
* Weep for the sin, the sorrow, and strife
* And rejoice in the hope of eternal life.
* Naval and Military Gazette.