Fore and aft on the waves swarmed fiendish things,
Vile creatures that seemed to be heads with wings.
Like a shoal of porpoises millions strong,
Alive with motion that could not rest,
Twisting out ropes from the breaker's crest,
From the fleecy foam of the yeasty spray,
With hands that appeared and vanished away;
Chattering, they towed the ship along;
And we, the living, stood looking on,
Until that horrible night was gone.
When the grey of dawn came in the sky,
With a scream and a cheer the fiends vanished;
Over the side filing silently
Went our messmates, the corpses swollen and dead,
Gliding over the waves with the vanishing night
Till the low clouds covered them up from our sight.
We, like men who have got respite from pain,
Put about the ship toward home again,
The sails swelled out with a favouring wind;
The coast of horrors we left behind.
And cheerily sailed in the blessed light;
But the ghosts of the crew came back at night.
Whatever distance we gained by day.
Pages:
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134