Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.djvu/665

 My lips were wet, my throat was cold, My garments all were dank; Sure I had drunken in my dreams, And still my body drank.

I moved, and could not feel my limbs: I was so light—almost I thought that I had died in sleep, And was a blessèd ghost.

And soon I heard a roaring wind: It did not come anear; But with its sound it shook the sails, That were so thin and sere.

The upper air burst into life; And a hundred fire-flags sheen; To and fro they were hurried about! And to and fro, and in and out, The wan stars danced between.

And the coming wind did roar more loud. And the sails did sigh like sedge; And the rain pour'd down from one black cloud; The Moon was at its edge.

The thick black cloud was cleft, and still The Moon was at its side; Like waters shot from some high crag, The lightning fell with never a jag, A river steep and wide.

The loud wind never reached the ship, Yet now the ship moved on! Beneath the lightning and the Moon The dead men gave a groan.