Tynan uses the sea as a metaphor for the wild and stormy unknown. It has nothing to do with her poem, but scuba diving enables me to view the sea as less scary and strange, and more familiar and welcoming. It’s nonethelss something to be respected.
Wishing you all a very happy new year, filled with peace, lots of salt water, and good quality family and friend time.
A Song for the New Year – Katharine Tynan
The Year of the Sorrows went out with great wind:
Lift up, lift up, O broken hearts, your Lord is kind,
And He shall call His flock home where no storms be
Into a sheltered haven out of sound of the sea.
There shall be bright sands there and a milken hill,
They shall lie in the sun there and drink their fill,
They shall have dew and shade there and grass to the knee,
Safe in a sheltered haven out of sound of the sea.
He shall bind their wounds up and their tears shall cease:
They shall have sweetest pillows and a bed of ease.
Come up, come up and hither, O little flock, saith He,
Ye shall have sheltered havens out of sound of the sea.
The first day of New Year strewed the sea with dead.
Lift up, lift up, O broken heart and hanging head!
The Lord walks on the waters and a Shepherd is He
They shall have sheltered havens out of sound of the sea.
