Page:Lyrical ballads, Volume 1, Wordsworth, 1800.djvu/224

172 The many men so beautiful,

And they all dead did lie!

And a million million slimy things

Liv'd on—and so did I.

I look'd upon the rotting Sea,

And drew my eyes away;

I look'd upon the ghastly deck,

And there the dead men lay.

I look'd to Heaven, and try'd to pray;

But or ever a prayer had gusht,

A wicked whisper came and made

My heart as dry as dust.

I clos'd my lids and kept them close,

Till the balls like pulses beat;

For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky

Lay like a load on my weary eye,

And the dead were at my feet.