Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/77

Rh A berg like a mountain, closing fast—
 * Not a cable's length away!

I could not see through the sheet of mist
 * That covered all below,

But I heard the cheery voices still,
 * And I screamed to let them know.

The cry went down, and the skipper hailed,
 * But before the word could come

It died in his throat—and I knew they saw
 * The shape of the closing doom!

"No sound but that—but the hail that died
 * Came up through the mist to me;

Thank God, it covered the ship like a veil,
 * And I was not forced to see—

But I heard it, mates: O, I heard the rush,
 * And the timbers rend and rive.

As the yard I clung to swayed and fell:
 * —I lay on the ice, alive!

Alive! O God of mercy I ship and crew and sea were gone! The hummocked ice and the broken yard.
 * And a kneeling man—alone!