"The Lamp in the West"

The Lamp in the West

Venus has lit her silver lamp 

Low in the purple West, 

Breathing a soft and mellow light 

Upon the sea’s full breast; 

It is the hour when velvet winds 

Tremble the alder’s crest. 

Far out, far out the restless bar 

Starts from a troubled sleep, 

Where roaring thro’ the narrow straits 

The meeting waters leap; 

But still that shining pathway leads 

Across the lonely deep. 

When I sail out the narrow straits 

Where unknown dangers be, 

And cross the troubled, moaning bar 

To the mysterious sea― 

Dear God, wilt thou not set a lamp 

Low in the West for me? 

"The Lamp in the West" as it appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).

"The Lamp in the West" was set to music by Horatio Parker in 1901, Oley Speaks in 1920, and Bryceson Treharne in 1921 retitled "The Star in the West."