To T. Raymond Eddy
"In the Storm" (1884)
by Frederic Woodman Root, 1846-1916
from "Two Songs", Op. 12, No. 2
for a medium or low voice

[Source: 03349@LoC;
Cincinnati: John Church & Co., Plate No. 5130-9]

Night on the ocean dark and cold ...
A shadowy beach where the wild sea rolled,
The foam capp'd waves as with sullen roar,
They angrily dashed on the desolate shore,
Over the waves a feeble light,
From the fisherman's but gleamed thro' the night,
While a woman waited and watched alone,
And shuddered to hear the storm's wild moan.

"Shine out thro' the gloom O light" she cried,
"My boy's frail bark o'er the waves guide,
He will know the light that his mother's hand
Has placed to beckon him safe to land.
He will know the light that his mother's hand
Has places to beckon him safe to land,"
Loud and louder the wild waves roar,
Lashing the lonely deserted shore,
And none may hear the pitiful wail,
That floats ashore on the cruel gale.

But ere the morning has dawned at last
The wind the storm and the gale are past
And one by one in the shadowy sky,
The starry lamps are hung on high,
And they beckon the soul of the fisher boy,
To a world of wonderful unknown joy,
E'en while the light in the window burns
Where a mother's heart for her boy still yearns.
Morn on the ocean bright and fair,
Sunlight gleaming on sea-wet hair,
Sunshine kissing the face so white,
Of him whose life in the angry night.
Stranded for aye on the unknown shore,
Shall never know storm or shipwreck more,
But the wall from a mother's broken heart,
The gates of heaven have cleft apart,
But the wail from a mother's broken heart,
The gates of heaven ...
The gates of heaven have cleft apart, have cleft apart.