Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/318

280 He rais'd a shout as he drew on,

Till all the welkin rang again,

"Elizabeth! Elizabeth!"

(A sweeter woman ne'er drew breath

Than my sonne's wife, Elizabeth.)

"The olde sea wall," he cried, "is downe,

The rising tide comes on apace,

And boats adrift in yonder towne

Go sailing uppe the market-place."

He shook as one that looks on death:

"God save you, mother!" straight he saith;

"Where is my wife, Elizabeth?"

"Good sonne, where Lindis winds her way

With her two bairns I marked her long;

And ere yon bells beganne to play

Afar I heard her milking song."

He looked across the grassy lea,

To right, to left, "Ho, Enderby!"

They rang "The Brides of Enderby!"

With that he cried and beat his breast;

For, lo! along the river's bed

A mighty eygre rear'd his crest,

And uppe the Lindis raging sped.

It swept with thunderous noises loud;

Shap'd like a curling snow-white cloud,

Or like a demon in a shroud.

And rearing Lindis backward press'd

Shook all her trembling bankes amaine,

Then madly at the eygre's breast

Flung uppe her weltering walls again.