Our Chart - A poem by Ellen P. Allerton

Our Chart.

From day to day we float upon a sea,
Now softly rippling to a summer wind,
Now plowed by gales and tossing stormily,
With rocks before and gulfing waves behind,
And sails all torn and flapping uselessly.

But whether on the ever-changing sea
Sweet summer sheds it calm or winter wails:
Whether in safe, still harbors we may be,
Or driven onward by relentless gales,
Or close by battling crags creep cautiously^___

We have a chart to guide us on through all!
Past treacherous quicksands^___past the breakers' roar^___
Past rocky capes, where storms forever fall,
Through narrow passes, where rocks huge and hoar,
Lock out the sunlight with a frowning wall.

Our guide to safety and an open sea,
Where any winds shall wrangle nevermore^___
tf we but heed its reckonings carefully^___
The sea without a storm, without a shore;
A calm and peaceful deep^___Eternity!

^__Ellen P. Allerton.