James Challen Jonah (1852)

FROM

THE

MILLENNIAL HARBINGER:

FOURTH SERIES.

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VOL. II.] BETHANY, VA. APRIL, 1852. [NO. IV.
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J O N A H.
BY JAMES CHALLEN.
            "What meanest thou! O sleeper?"
                Upon the roaring sea!
            With slumbers firmer, deeper,
                In our dread extremity.
The rocking of the vessel, and the breaking of the wave,
Seem to lull thy soul to slumber, like the slumber of the grave.

            "What meanest thou! O sleeper?"
                Call on thy God--arise!
            He is thy Lord and keeper;
                Unseal thy leaden eyes.
The tempest howls more fiercely, and deeper is the gloom;
Awake! awake! thou sleeper, ere the ocean is our tomb.

            What meanest thou! O sleeper?"
                Behold the angry storm!
            For death, the mighty reaper,
                Reveals his awful form.
We see him in the whirlwind--we hear him in its roar;
Awake! O man, awake! or sleep forever more.

            "What meanest thou! O sleeper?"
                Has grief thy spirit chain'd?
            Art thou a worn out weeper,
                Unconscious and unpain'd?
Grown desperate in sorrow--awake! thy doom is nigh;
See, the ocean yawns beneath us, and the lightnings fiercer fly.

            "What meanest thou! O sleeper?"
                Whilst the ship is on the deep,
            What power on earth can keep her,
                If you in silence sleep?
If so be thy God will hear us, then loud upon him call,
For no arm but his can save us from our danger and our thrall.

            He slept--the ocean slept not;
                He heeded not its roar;
            The sailors wept--He wept not;
                The rigging rent and tore.
Like the dead among the living, lo! the prophet sleeps, how sweet!
Is it well to sleep, deserter--is it proper, is it meet?

[The Millennial Harbinger (April 1852): 239.]

ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EDITION

      James Challen's "Jonah" was first published in The Millennial Harbinger, Fourth Series, Vol. 2, No. 4, April 1852. The electronic version of the poem has been produced from the College Press reprint (1976) of The Millennial Harbinger, ed. Alexander Campbell (Bethany, VA: A. Campbell, 1852), p. 239.

      Pagination in the electronic version has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page. I have let stand variations and inconsistencies in the author's (or editor's) use of italics, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in the poem. Emendations are as follows:

            Printed Text [ Electronic Text
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 l. 25:     O sleeper? [ O sleeper?"

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 22 June 1998.
Updated 2 July 2003.

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