They who go down to the relentless deep,
After long horrible death of cold and drought
Ere the last spark of flickering life goes out,
Give to the bitter waves that o'er them sweep,
The secret of their agony to keep;
Hoping that when the never-satiate sea,
In its huge depths had swallowed them for ever,
To human hands and eyes it shall deliver
The record of their piteous misery.
So I unto these pages do commend
The story of my shipwreck dire for thee,
Where thou shalt read, how long before the end,
I strove, and clung, and prayed, and vainly cried,
Trusting in thee and heaven, until I died.
Frances Anne Kemble
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/written-in-a-diary/
