To Rear-Admiral and Mrs. Diehl 
 
         and Margaret

      From Marie B. Mengers


  All of his life, sea-buffeted, wind-tossed,

  The ship's commander, lonely with his men,

  Recalls the little figures as he crossed 
 
  Before the hill-sloped island, and again

  Took heart to navigate beyond the sight

  Of waiting daughter and of patient mate

  Whom distance dwindled in the fading light

  To miniatures, the better so that Fate

  Might carve them preciously upon his soul

  As cameos that stand minutely clear

  Against a darker background; and his goal,

  Though many storms ahead, seemed strangely near,

  Yet not so strange as happy; all his life

  He knew, despite all seas, the time would come

  When toward the child and toward the faithful wife,

  Anchored to land, he'd climb that hill for home.



  Note: This was stashed in a folder with 
        some of Gram's own.