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 /> <br />His lordly ships of ice <br />Glisten in the sun; <br />On each side, like pennons wide, <br />Flashing crystal streamlets run. <br /> <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/by-the-seaside-sir-humphrey-gilbert/
