Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/76

64 The lifeless berg and the lifeful ship
 * Were the same to the sullen wave,

As it swept them far from ridge to ridge.
 * Till at last the Narwhale drave

With a crashing rail on the glacier wall—
 * As sheer as the vessel's mast—

A crashing rail and a shivered yard;
 * But the worst, we thought, was past.

The brave lads sprang to the fending work,
 * And the skipper's voice rang hard:

'Aloft there, one with a ready knife—
 * Cut loose that royal yard!'

I sprang to the rigging, young I was.
 * And proud to be first to dare:

The yard swung free, and I turned to gaze Toward the open sea, o'er the field of haze, And my heart grew cold, as if frozen through, At the moving shape that met my view—
 * O Christ! what a sight was there!

"Above the fog, as I hugged the yard,
 * I saw that an iceberg lay—