Southward with fleet of ice <br /> Sailed the corsair Death; <br /> Wild and gast blew the blast, <br /> And the east-wind was his breath. <br /> His lordly ships of ice <br /> Glisten in the sun; <br /> On each side, like pennons wide, <br /> Flashing crystal streamlets run. <br /> His sails of white sea-mist <br /> Dripped with silver rain; <br /> But where he passed there were cast <br /> Leaden shadows o'er the main. <br /> <br /> Eastward from Campobello <br /> Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed; <br /> Three days or more seaward he bore, <br /> Then, alas! the land-wind failed. <br /> <br /> Alas! the land-wind failed, <br /> And ice-cold grew the night; <br /> And nevermore, on sea or shore, <br /> Should Sir Humphrey see the light. <br /> <br /> He sat upon the deck, <br /> The Book was in his hand; <br /> "Do not fear! Heaven is as near," <br /> He said, "by water as by land!" <br /> <br /> In the first watch of the night, <br /> Without a signal's sound, <br /> Out of the sea, mysteriously, <br /> The fleet of Death rose all around. <br /> <br /> The moon and the evening star <br /> Were hanging in the shrouds; <br /> Every mast, as it passed, <br /> Seemed to rake the passing clouds. <br /> <br /> They grappled with their prize, <br /> At midnight black and cold! <br /> As of a rock was the shock; <br /> Heavily the ground-swell rolled. <br /> <br /> Southward through day and dark, <br /> They drift in cold embrace, <br /> With mist and rain, o'er the open main; <br /> Yet there seems no change of place. <br /> <br /> Southward, forever southward, <br /> They drift through dark and day; <br /> And like a dream, in the Gulf-Stream <br /> Sinking, vanish all away.<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sir-humphrey-gilbert/
