Lyr Req: Naval spouses' hymn stanza

Subject: Lyr Req: Naval spouses' hymn stanza
From: Haruo
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 03:10 PM

See my request here. Thanks for any help.

Haruo
for the mrs.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Naval spouses' hymn stanza
From: skipy
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 03:20 PM

[T]he women who "stand and wait" are many. But if work-baskets were gifted with powers of speech, they could tell stories more true and tender than any we read. For women often sew the tragedy or comedy of life into their work as they sit apparently safe and serene at home, yet are thinking deeply, living whole heart-histories, and praying fervent prayers while they embroider pretty trifles or do the weekly mending.

Louisa May Alcott
"An Old Fashioned Girl"

Not what you are looking for I know, but interesting find during a google search, am on the case & will try for you this eve.
Skipy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Naval spouses' hymn stanza
From: oldhippie
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 03:27 PM

The closest I could find - from the Naval Historical Center site:


God, who dost still the restless foam,
Protect the ones we love at home.
Provide that they should always be
By thine own grace both safe and free.
O Father, hear us when we pray
For those we love so far away.
-- Hugh Taylor, date unknown

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Naval spouses' hymn stanza
From: Alec
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 03:36 PM

No variant of "For those in Peril on the sea" that I have encountered contains this phrase.
I associate it with Milton's Sonnet XIV (On His Blindness)
Though Milton phrases it ...thousands at his bidding speed, and post o'er land and ocean without rest:They also serve who only stand and wait.
Were you to write your own verse, perhaps the "Nucleus" of it might be in Milton's lines.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Naval spouses' hymn stanza
From: Haruo
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 04:37 PM

Thanks, skipy. oldhippie's citation is also the closest thing I've found among extant variants. And Alec, yes, the line (with "only") is from Milton. If one views spousehood as a disability (much as Milton saw his own blindness) then the line is spot on. And it may well form the nucleus of our projected new stanza.

Haruo