Fishers Of Men

Long, long ago, He said,

He who could wake the dead

And walk upon the sea-

"Come, follow Me.

Leave your brown nets and bring

Only your hearts to sing,

Only your souls to pray,

Rise, come away.

Shake out your spirit-sails,

And brave those wilder gales,

And I will make you then

Fishers of men."

Was this, then, what He meant?

Was this His high intent,

After two thousand years

Of blood and tears?

God help us, if we fight

For right and not for might.

God help us if we seek

To shield the weak.

Then, though His heaven be far

From this blind welter of war,

He'll bless us, on the sea

From Calvary.

This poem was taken from Alfred Noyes' book The Elfin Artist and other poems, published in 1920 by William Blackwood and Sons.It is in a section entitled Songs of the Trawlers.JS