Page:Songs of the Springtides - Swinburne (1880).pdf/86

 For here of all thy waters, here of all Thy windy ways the wildest, and beset As some beleaguered city's war-breached wall With deaths enmeshed all round it in deep net, Thick sown with rocks deadlier than steel, and fierce With loud cross-countering currents, where the ship Flags, flickering like a wind-bewildered leaf, The densest weft of waves that prow may pierce Coils round the sharpest warp of shoals that dip Suddenly, scarce well under for one brief Keen breathing-space between the streams adverse, Scarce showing the fanged edge of one hungering lip Or one tooth lipless of the ravening reef; And midmost of the murderous water's web All round it stretched and spun, Laughs, reckless of rough tide and raging ebb, The loveliest thing that shines against the sun.