| |
| IN David’s Psalms an oversight | |
| Byles found one morning at his tea, | |
| Alas! that he should never write | |
| A proper psalm to sing at sea. | |
| |
| Thus ruminating on his seat, | 5 |
| Ambitious thoughts at length prevail’d. | |
| The bard determined to complete | |
| The part wherein the prophet fail’d. | |
| |
| He sat awhile and stroked his muse, 1 | |
| Then taking up his tuneful pen, | 10 |
| Wrote a few stanzas for the use | |
| Of his seafaring brethren. | |
| |
| The task perform’d, the bard content, | |
| Well chosen was each flowing word; | |
| On a short voyage himself he went, | 15 |
| To hear it read and sung on board. | |
| |
| Most serious Christians do aver, | |
| (Their credit sure we may rely on,) | |
| In former times that after prayer, | |
| They used to sing a song of Zion. | 20 |
| |
| Our modern parson having pray’d, | |
| Unless loud fame our faith beguiles, | |
| Sat down, took out his book and said, | |
| “Let ’s sing a psalm of Mather Byles.” | |
| |
| At first, when he began to read, | 25 |
| Their heads the assembly downward hung. | |
| But he with boldness did proceed, | |
| And thus he read, and thus they sung. | |
| |
THE PSALM. With vast amazement we survey | |
| The wonders of the deep, | 30 |
| Where mackerel swim, and porpoise play, | |
| And crabs and lobsters creep. | |
| |
| Fish of all kinds inhabit here, | |
| And throng the dark abode. | |
| Here haddock, hake, and flounders are, | 35 |
| And eels, and perch, and cod, | |
| |
| From raging winds and tempests free, | |
| So smoothly as we pass, | |
| The shining surface seems to be | |
| A piece of Bristol glass. | 40 |
| |
| But when the winds and tempests rise, | |
| And foaming billows swell, | |
| The vessel mounts above the skies, | |
| And lower sinks than hell. | |
| |
| Our heads the tottering motion feel, | 45 |
| And quickly we become | |
| Giddy as new-dropp’d calves, and reel | |
| Like Indians drunk with rum. | |
| |
| What praises then are due that we | |
| Thus far have safely got, | 50 |
| Amarescoggin tribe to see, | |
| And tribe of Penobscot. | |
