Away, o'er the ocean depths, away, <br />Like a vulture fierce when he scents his prey, <br />The pirate ship is gone! <br />The sable flag its shadow threw <br />O'er the darkened brows of a blood-stained crew, <br />As night's a churchyard on. <br /> <br />Each eye had seen the life-blood flow, <br />Each ear had heard the shrieks of woe, <br />Each hand had struck the fatal blow, <br />That godless crew among; <br />Each had the mark of wicked Cain, <br />Each had the everlasting stain, <br />That unto Judas, the God-slayer, clung. <br /> <br />Ripe for the pangs of hell they stood, <br />Each viper of that demon brood, <br />On ocean's trackless solitude, <br />Beneath an outraged Heaven. <br />Often before as they had sailed, <br />Now all their courage strangely failed, <br />To memory's dismal vaults their souls were driven. <br /> <br />Thought is a hell to sinful men, <br />A torment far beyond the ken <br />Of the earth-shackled mind; <br />The wicked in a moment dree <br />The pains of an eternity, <br />That would for death be joyfully resigned. <br /> <br />Ha! why with fixed and glazing eye <br />Doth yonder pirate scan the sky? <br />What sees the murderer there? <br />The dews start thick upon his brow, <br />He points with trembling finger now, <br />And mutters, 'twixt his close-clenched teeth, <br />'Despair!' <br /> <br />Lo! from a shadowy cloud, a hand <br />Stretches afar a fiery brand, <br />O'er that doom'd bark; and there, <br />Along its blade in letters seven, <br />That fill with ghastly light the heaven, <br />All horror-shook, they trace the word 'Despair!' <br /> <br />On every side the murmuring waves <br />Ope their black breasts like yawning graves; <br />The winds howl drearily; <br />They can but see that awful word, <br />Conscience' deep voice alone is heard, <br />O'erta'en they feel, too late, they cannot flee.<br /><br />Peter John Allan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-fragment-10/
