I've watch'd the sea bird calmly glide
Unruffled o'er the ocean tide;
Unscared she heard the waters roar
In foaming breakers on the shore.
Fearless of ill, herself she gave
To rise upon the lifting wave,
Or sink, to be awhile unseen-
The undulating swells between-
Till, as the evening shadows grew,
Noiseless, unheard, aloft she flew;
While, soaring to her rock-built nest,
A sunbeam lighted on her breast,
A moment glitter'd in mine eye,
Then quickly vanished through the sky.
While by the pebbly beach I stood,
That sea bird, on the waving flood,
Pictured to my enraptured eye,
A soul at peace with God:-Now high,
Now low, upon the gulf of life,
Raised or depress'd, in peace or strife,
Calmly she kens the changeful wave,
She dreads no storm-she fears no grave:
To her, the world's tumultuous roar
Dies like the echo on the shore.
" Father," she cries, " Thy pleasure all fulfill, "
I gladly yield me to Thy sovereign will;
" Let earthly joys, let comforts ebb or rise,
" Tranquil on Thee, my God, my soul relies."
Then, as advance the shades of night,
Long-plumed, she takes her heavenward flight:
But as she mounts, I see her fling
A beam of glory from her wing-
A moment-to my aching sight
Lost in the boundless fields of light!