| |
(From The Ballad of Carmilhan)
AND now along the horizon’s edge | |
| Mountains of cloud uprose, | |
| Black as with forests underneath, | |
| Above, their sharp and jagged teeth | |
| Were white as drifted snows. | 5 |
| |
| Unseen behind them sank the sun, | |
| But flushed each snowy peak | |
| A little while with rosy light | |
| That faded slowly from the sight | |
| As blushes from the cheek. | 10 |
| |
| Black grew the sky,—all black, all black; | |
| The clouds were everywhere; | |
| There was a feeling of suspense | |
| In nature, a mysterious sense | |
| Of terror in the air. | 15 |
| |
| And all on board the Valdemar | |
| Was still as still could be; | |
| Save when the dismal ship-bell tolled, | |
| As ever and anon she rolled, | |
| And lurched into the sea. | 20 |
| |
| The captain up and down the deck | |
| Went striding to and fro; | |
| Now watched the compass at the wheel, | |
| Now lifted up his hand to feel | |
| Which way the wind might blow. | 25 |
| |
| And now he looked up at the sails, | |
| And now upon the deep; | |
| In every fibre of his frame | |
| He felt the storm before it came, | |
| He had no thought of sleep. | 30 |
| |
| Eight bells! and suddenly abaft, | |
| With a great rush of rain, | |
| Making the ocean white with spume, | |
| In darkness like the day of doom, | |
| On came the hurricane. | 35 |
| |
| The lightning flashed from cloud to cloud, | |
| And rent the sky in two; | |
| A jagged flame, a single jet | |
| Of white fire, like a bayonet, | |
| That pierced the eyeballs through. | 40 |
| |
| Then all around is dark again, | |
| And blacker than before; | |
| But in that single flash of light | |
| He had beheld a fearful sight, | |
| And thought of the oath he swore. | 45 |
| |
| For right ahead lay the Ship of the Dead, | |
| The ghostly Carmilhan! | |
| Her masts were stripped, her yards were bare, | |
| And on her bowsprit, poised in air, | |
| Sat the Klaboterman. | 50 |
| |
| Her crew of ghosts was all on deck | |
| Or clambering up the shrouds; | |
| The boatswain’s whistle, the captain’s hail, | |
| Were like the piping of the gale, | |
| And thunder in the clouds. | 55 |
| |
| And close behind the Carmilhan | |
| There rose up from the sea, | |
| As from a foundered ship of stone, | |
| Three bare and splintered masts alone: | |
| They were the Chimneys Three. | 60 |
| |
| And onward dashed the Valdemar | |
| And leaped into the dark; | |
| A denser mist, a colder blast, | |
| A little shudder, and she had passed | |
| Right through the Phantom Bark. | 65 |
| |
| She cleft in twain the shadowy hulk, | |
| But cleft it unaware; | |
| As when, careering to her nest, | |
| The sea-gull severs with her breast | |
| The unresisting air. | 70 |
| |
| Again the lightning flashed; again | |
| They saw the Carmilhan, | |
| Whole as before in hull and spar; | |
| But now on board of the Valdemar | |
| Stood the Klaboterman. | 75 |
| |
| And they all knew their doom was sealed; | |
| They knew that death was near; | |
| Some prayed who never prayed before, | |
| And some they wept, and some they swore, | |
| And some were mute with fear. | 80 |
| |
| Then suddenly there came a shock, | |
| And louder than wind or sea | |
| A cry burst from the crew on deck, | |
| As she dashed and crashed, a hopeless wreck, | |
| Upon the Chimneys Three. | 85 |
| |
| The storm and night were passed, the light | |
| To streak the east began; | |
| The cabin boy, picked up at sea, | |
| Survived the wreck, and only he, | |
| To tell of the Carmilhan. | 90 |
| |
