"The Mother Who Hath a Child at Sea" (23 June 1841)
A Ballad.
As sung with great applause by
Miss Ellen Lewis.
[Words by ???]
The music composed and respectfully dedicated to his friend
Henry John Sharpe, Esqr.
by Henry Russell, 1812-1900.

[Source: 182/070@Levy]

1.
There's an eye that looks on the swelling cloud,
Folding the moon in a fun'ral shroud,
That watches stars dying one by one,
'Till the whole of heav'ns calm light hath gone,
There's an ear that lists to the hissing surge,
As the mourner turns to the Anthem dirge,
That eye! that ear! oh, whose can they be,
But a Mother's who hath a child at sea!

2.
There's a cheek that is getting ashy white,
As the tokens of storm come on with the night,
There's a form that's fix'd on the lattice pane,
To mark how the gloom gathers o'er the main,
While the yeasty billows lash the shore,
With loftier sweep and hoarser roar,
That cheek, that form, oh! who whose can they be,
But a Mother's who hath a child at Sea.

3.
She presses her brow, she sinks and kneels,
Whil'st the blast howls on and the thunder peals,
She breathes not a word for passionate prayer,
Is too fervent and deep for her lips to bear.
It is pour'd in the long convulsive sigh,
In the straining glance of an unturn'd eye,
And a holier offering cannot be,
Than a Mother's who hath a Child at Sea.

4.
Oh, I love the winds when they spurn control,
For they suit my own bond hating soul.
I like to hear them sweeping past,
Like the eagle's pinions free and fast.
But a pang will rise with sad alloy,
To soften my spirit and sink my joy,
When I think how dismal their soiree must be,
To a Mother who hath a Child at Sea.