ah! what is that on the wave’s foamy brim, Disgorged with an ocean of wreck and of wood? ’Tis the snow-white arm and the shoulder of him Who daringly dived for the glittering meed: ’Tis he, ’tis the stripling so hardy and bold, Who swings in his left hand the goblet of gold.

He draws a long breath as the breaker he leaves, Then swims through the water with many a strain, While all his companions exultingly heave Their voices above the wild din of the main: “’Tis he, O! ’tis he, from the horrible hole The brave one has rescued his body and soul.”

p. 13He reach’d the tall jetty, and kneeling he laid The massy gold goblet in triumph and pride At the foot of the monarch, who instantly made A sign to his daughter who stood by his side: She fill’d it with wine, and the youth with a spring Received it, and quaff’d it, and turn’d to the King.

p. 13

“Long life to the monarch! how happy are they Who breathe and exist in the sun’s rosy light, But he who is doom’d in the ocean to stray, Views nothing around him but horror and night; Let no one henceforward be tempted like me To pry in the secrets contain’d in the sea.

“I felt myself seized, with the quickness of thought The whirlpool entomb’d me in body and limb, And billow on billow tumultuously brought It’s cataracts o’er me; in vain did I swim, For like a mere pebble with horrible sound The force of the double stream twisted me round.

p. 14“But God in his mercy, for to him alone In the moment of danger I ever have clung, Did bear me towards a projection of stone: I seized it in transport, and round it I hung, The goblet lay too on a corally ledge, Which jutted just over the cataract’s edge.

p. 14

“And then I look’d downward, and horribly deep, And twinkling sheen in the darkness below, And though to the hearing it ever might sleep, Yet still the eye clouded with terror might know, That serpents and creatures that made my blood cool, Were swimming and splashing about in the pool.

“Ball’d up to a mass, in a moment uncoil’d, They rose, and again disappear’d in the dark, And down in the billows which over them boil’d I saw a behemoth contend with a shark; The sounds of their hideous duel awaken The black-bellied whale, and the slumbering craken.

p. 15“Still, still did I linger forlorn, and oppress’d With a feeling of terror that curdled my 

 Prev. P 4/10 next