At Stralsund, by the Baltic Sea, <br />Within the sandy bar, <br />At sunset of a summer's day, <br />Ready for sea, at anchor lay <br />The good ship Valdemar. <br /> <br />The sunbeams danced upon the waves, <br />And played along her side; <br />And through the cabin windows streamed <br />In ripples of golden light, that seemed <br />The ripple of the tide. <br /> <br />There sat the captain with his friends, <br />Old skippers brown and hale, <br />Who smoked and grumbled o'er their grog, <br />And talked of iceberg and of fog, <br />Of calm and storm and gale. <br /> <br />And one was spinning a sailor's yarn <br />About Klaboterman, <br />The Kobold of the sea; a spright <br />Invisible to mortal sight, <br />Who o'er the rigging ran. <br /> <br />Sometimes he hammered in the hold, <br />Sometimes upon the mast, <br />Sometimes abeam, sometimes abaft, <br />Or at the bows he sang and laughed, <br />And made all tight and fast. <br /> <br />He helped the sailors at their work, <br />And toiled with jovial din; <br />He helped them hoist and reef the sails, <br />He helped them stow the casks and bales, <br />And heave the anchor in. <br /> <br />But woe unto the lazy louts, <br />The idlers of the crew; <br />Them to torment was his delight, <br />And worry them by day and night, <br />And pinch them black and blue. <br /> <br />And woe to him whose mortal eyes <br />Klaboterman behold. <br />It is a certain sign of death!? <br />The cabin-boy here held his breath, <br />He felt his blood run cold.<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tales-of-a-wayside-inn-part-2-the-musician-s-tale-the-ballad-of-carmilhan-i/
