My wife and child, come close to me,
The world to us is a stormy sea;
With your hands in mine, if your eyes but shine,
I care not how wild the storm may be.
For the fiercest wind that ever blew
Is nothing to me, so I shelter you:
No warmth do I lack, for the howl at my back
Sings down to my heart, "Man, bold and true."
A pleasant sail, my child! my wife!
O'er a pleasant sea, to many is life;
The wind blows warm, and they dread no storm,
And wherever they go, kind friends are rife.
But, wife and child! the love, the love,
That lifteth us to the saints above,
Could only have grown where storms have blown,
The truth and strength of the heart to prove.