The Sabbath Bell

by Walter M. Lindsay

How like a knell
Sounds the far off Sabbath bell!
Not unto me
The summons speaks an accent glad.
Eternity
Hath meaning sad
Unto my faint, prophetic soul!
The ages shall their circuit roll
In endless gloom.
From the low portals of the tomb,
I see the dark procession go,
Dumb in its ecstasy of woe!

Oh! Sabbath bell!
My weary ears remember thee!
Upon the swell
Of that uncertain, clouded sea,
Which bounds the voyage of our life,
My shallop rose and fell
In frolic glee,
When first thy echo came to me!
I did not heed thy warning note,
But hoisted sail,
And watched my shallop outward float.
Oh! spirit, wail
The long, long voyage from the shore, --
The wreck upon the sand!
Oh! spirit, wail the chance that bore
Me desolate to land!

Oh! Sabbath bell,
To me thou soundest as a knell!
For, wandering on the silent shore,
I look upon the sea,
And know that sorrow, evermore,
Companion is to me.
In shipwreck, it alone remained.
It points me to the ebbing wave,
It points me to the sand,
Where it, with spectre hand,
Is digging at my shallow grave!