SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH POETRY
The sails were set, and the oars kept tune
To the double flight of the ship and the moon : 75
Swifter and swifter the White Ship sped
Till she flew as the spirit flies from the dead:
As white as a lily glimmered she
Like a ship's fair ghost upon the sea, 79
And the Prince cried, "Friends, 'tis the hour to sing!
Is a songbird's course so swift on the wing?
And under the winter stars' still throng,
From brown throats, white throats, merry and strong,
The knights and the ladies raised a song.
A song,—nay, a shriek that rent the sky, 85
That leaped o'er the deep!—the grievous cry
Of three hundred living that now must die.
An instant shriek that sprang to the shock
As the ship's keel felt the sunken rock.
'Tis said that afar— a shrill strange sigh— go
The King's ships heard it and knew not why.
Pale Fitz-Stephen stood by the helm
'Mid all those folks that the waves must whelm.
A great King's heir for the waves to whelm,
And the helpless pilot pale at the helm! 95
The ship was eager and sucked athirst,
By the stealthy stab of the sharp reef pierc'd :
307 fi°*