Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/86

 Wassaile! to every darked-ribbed ship, To every battle-field! So proudly the Skalds raise their voices of triumph, As the Northmen ride over the broad-bosom'd billow.

Aloft, Sigurdir's battle-flag Streams onward to the land, Well may the taint of slaughter lag On yonder glorious strand. The waters of the mighty deep, The wild birds of the sky, Hear it like vengeance shoreward sweep, Where moody men must die. The waves wax wroth beneath our keel— The clouds above us lower, They know the battle sign, and feel All its resistless power! Who now uprears Sigurdir's flag, Nor shuns an early tomb? Who shoreward through the swelling surge, Shall bear the scroll of doom? So shout the Skalds as the long ships are nearing The low-lying shores of a beautiful land.