4 They row'd her in across the rolling foam, The cruel crawling foam, The cruel hungry foam, To her grave beside the sea: But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home, Across the sands o' Dee. C. Kingsley XXXVI THE LOSS OF THE ROYAL GEORGE Toll for the brave! The brave that are no more! All sunk beneath the wave, Fast by their native shore! Eight hundred of the brave, Had made the vessel heel, And laid her on her side. A land breeze shook the shrouds, Toll for the brave! Brave Kempenfelt is gone; It was not in the battle; She ran upon no rock. His sword was in its sheath; Weigh the vessel up, Once dreaded by our foes! And mingle with our cup The tear that England owes. Her timbers yet are sound, Full charged with England's thunder, But Kempenfelt is gone, His victories are o'er ; And he and his eight hundred Shall plough the wave no more. W. Cowper XXXVII A SEA DIRGE Full fathom five thy father lies: Ding, dong, bell. W. Shakespeare XXXVIII THE ANCIENT MARINER It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three. "By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me ? "The Bridegroom's doors are open'd wide, And I am next of kin : The guests are met, the feast is set : He holds him with his glittering eye-- The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: And thus spake on that ancient man, The bright-eyed Mariner. "The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared. Merrily did we drop Below the kirk, below the hill, Below the lighthouse top. "The sun came up upon the left, Out of the sea came he, And he shone bright, and on the right Went down into the sea. "Higher and higher every day, Till over the mast at noon The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast, The Bride hath paced into the hall : Nodding their heads before her goes The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, 66 And now the storm-blast came, and he He struck with his o'er-taking wings, "With sloping masts and dipping prow, The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast, And southward aye we fled. 59 "And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold: And ice, mast-high, came floating by, As green as emerald. And through the drifts the snowy clifts Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken- "The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a swound! 66 At length did cross an Albatross, As if it had been a Christian soul, "It ate the food it ne'er had eat, "And a good south wind sprung up And every day, for food or play, behind; "In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, It perched for vespers nine ; Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white Glimmered the white moonshine." "God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends that plague thee thus !- "And I had done a hellish thing, And it would work 'em woe: For all averr'd I had killed the bird That made the breeze to blow ! |