DELIVERANCE FROM THE STORM.

O Thou! that in its wildest hour,
Didst rule the tempest's mood,
Send thy meek Spirit forth in power,
Soft on our souls to brood'

Thou that didst bow the billows' pride
Thy mandate to fulfil—

Oh, speak to passion's raging tide,
Speak, and say, "Peace, be still!"

MRS HEMANS.

DELIVERANCE FROM THE STORM.

THINK, O my soul! devoutly think,
How with affrighted eyes,

Thou saw'st the wide extended deep,
In all its horrors rise.

Confusion dwelt on every face,

And fear in every heart;

When waves on waves, and gulfs on gulfs,
O'ercame the pilot's art.

Yet then from all my griefs, O Lord!

Thy mercy set me free;

Whilst in the confidence of prayer,

My soul took hold on Thee.

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For though in dreadful whirls we hung,
High on the broken wave,

I knew Thou wert not slow to hear,
Nor impotent to save.

The storm was laid, the winds retired,
Obedient to Thy will;

The sea that roared at Thy command,
At Thy command was still!

In midst of dangers, fears, and death,
Thy goodness I'll adore;

And praise Thee for Thy mercies past,
And humbly hope for more.

My life, while Thou preserv'st that life,

Thy sacrifice shall be;

And death, when death shall be my
Shall join my soul to Thee.

lot,

ADDISON.

THE SEA BEACH.

How beautiful beneath the bright blue sky
The billows heave!' one glowing green expanse,
Save where, along the bending line of shore,
Such hue is thrown as when the peacock's neck

THE SEA SHORE.

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Assumes its proudest tint of amethyst,
Embathed in emerald glory. All the flocks
Of ocean are abroad: like floating foam
The sea-gulls rise and fall upon the waves;
With long-protruded necks the cormorants
Wing their far flight aloft; and round and round
The plovers wheel, and give their note of joy.
SOUTHEY.

THE SEA SHORE.

BEHOLD the bay!

The ocean smiling to the fervid sun—

The waves that faintly fall and slowly run—
The ships at distance, and the boats at hand;
And now they walk upon the sea-side sand,
Counting the number and what kind they be,
Ships softly sinking in the sleepy sea;
Now arm-in-arm, now parted, they behold
The glittering waters on the shingles rolled:
The timid girls, half dreading their design,
Dip their small foot in the retarded brine,
And search for crimson weeds, which spreading
flow,

Or lie like pictures on the sand below

With all those bright red pebbles, which the sun Through the small waves so softly shines upon; And those live, lucid jellies, which the eye Delights to trace as they swim glittering by;

Pearl shells and rubied star-fish they admire,

And will arrange above the parlour fire-
Tokens of bliss!-

CRABBE.

A THOUGHT ON THE SEA SHORE.

In every object here I see

Something, O LORD! that leads to thee:
Firm as the rocks thy promise stands;
Thy mercies countless as the sands;
Thy love a sea immensely wide;
Thy grace an ever-flowing tide.

In every object here I see

Something, my heart, that points at thee-
Hard as the rocks that bound the strand;
Unfruitful as the barren sand;

Deep and deceitful as the ocean ;

And, like the tides, in constant motion!

J. NEWTON.

THE EBB TIDE.

SLOWLY thy flowing tide

Came in, old Avon! Scarcely did mine eyes, As watchfully I roamed thy greenwood side, Behold thee gentle rise.

THE EBB TIDE.

With many a stroke, and strong,

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The labouring boatmen upward plied their oars; And yet the eye beheld them labouring long Between thy winding shores.

Now down thine ebbing tide
The unlaboured boat falls rapidly along;
The solitary helmsman sits to guide,
And sings an idle song.

Now o'er the rocks, that lay
So silent late, the shallow current roars:
Fast flow thy waters on their seaward way
Through wider-spreading shores.

Avon! I gaze and know

The lesson emblemed in thy varying way;
It speaks of human joys that rise so slow,
So rapidly decay.

Kingdoms which long have stood,

And slow to strength and power attained at last, Thus from the summit of high fortune's flood Ebb to their ruin fast.

Thus like thy flow appears

Time's tardy course to manhood's envied stage; Alas! how hurryingly the ebbing years

Then hasten to old age!

SOUTHEY.