Night and a starless sky,
Ship on wild billows tost,
With tattered sails and opening seams.
And deck bestrewn with falling beams.
Swift plunging to her doom.
Red lightnings round her flash,
Loud thunders crash and roar,
And the noble vessel mounts the crest
Of the reeking waves, then sinks to rest
Mid carnival of woe.
The Petrel soars aloft,
Wailing her hymn of death,
And the dirgelike sounds pierce the blackened sky,
While the crew send forth one anguished cry,
Sinking to lowest depth.
Some ships go out to sea
That never more return,
Souls that from heaven in infancy come,
Tarnished and ruined by sin may become,
Like the Dove to the Ark they never return,
But sink as ship to doom.