When the parting bosom bleeds

Top Text Author Text Info Timeline Page Scans Instances

When the parting bosom bleeds

Author: L. H. Sigourney
Published in 6 hymnals

Representative Text

When the parting bosom bleeds,
When their native shore recedes,
When the wild and faithless main
Takes them to her trust again,
Father! view the sailor’s woe—
Guide them wheresoe’er they go.

When the lonely watch they keep,
Silent on the mighty deep,
While the boisterous surges hoarse
Bear them daily on their course,
Eye that never slumbers! shed
Holy influence on their head.

When the Sabbath’s peaceful ray
O’er the ocean’s breast doth play,
Though no throngs assemble there,
No sweet church-bell warns to prayer,
Spirit! let thy presence be
Sabbath to the unresting sea.

When the raging billows dark
Thunder round the storm-tossed bark,
Thou who on the whelming wave
Didst the loved disciples save,
Thou canst hear them when they pray,—
Jesus, Saviour, be their stay!

Source: A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (15th ed.) #571

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: L. H. Sigourney

Sigourney, Lydia, née Huntley. This distinguished name stood at the head of the female poets of America a generation ago, and is still well remembered. Born in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1791, she conducted a school in the same town from 1809 to 1814, when she removed to Hartford, where she was married to Charles Sigourney in 1819. Most of her subsequent life was spent at Hartford, and she died there, June 10, 1865. Her first publication was Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, 1815. This was followed by 58 additional works. A thorough exploration of these, or of such of them are poetical, would be necessary to trace her hymns with accuracy. They, however, are more numerous than important. Many have been used in the older collections; some are… Go to person page >

^ top