| |
| SOUTHWARD with fleet of ice | |
| Sailed the corsair Death; | |
| Wild and fast blew the blast, | |
| And the east-wind was his breath. | |
| |
| His lordly ships of ice | 5 |
| Glisten in the sun; | |
| On each side, like pennons wide, | |
| Flashing crystal streamlets run. | |
| |
| His sails of white sea-mist | |
| Dripped with silver rain; | 10 |
| But where he passed there were cast | |
| Leaden shadows o’er the main. | |
| |
| Eastward from Campobello | |
| Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed; | |
| Three days or more seaward he bore, | 15 |
| Then, alas! the land-wind failed. | |
| |
| Alas! the land-wind failed, | |
| And ice-cold grew the night; | |
| And nevermore, on sea or shore, | |
| Should Sir Humphrey see the light. | 20 |
| |
| He sat upon the deck, | |
| The Book was in his hand; | |
| “Do not fear! Heaven is as near,” | |
| He said, “by water as by land!” | |
| |
| In the first watch of the night, | 25 |
| Without a signal’s sound, | |
| Out of the sea, mysteriously, | |
| The fleet of Death rose all around. | |
| |
| The moon and the evening star | |
| Were hanging in the shrouds; | 30 |
| Every mast, as it passed, | |
| Seemed to rake the passing clouds. | |
| |
| They grappled with their prize, | |
| At midnight black and cold! | |
| As of a rock was the shock; | 35 |
| Heavily the ground-swell rolled. | |
| |
| Southward through day and dark, | |
| They drift in close embrace, | |
| With mist and rain, o’er the open main; | |
| Yet there seems no change of place. | 40 |
| |
| Southward, forever southward, | |
| They drift through dark and day; | |
| And like a dream, in the Gulf-Stream | |
| Sinking, vanish all away. | |
| |
