Page:The Vow of the Peacock.pdf/268

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Years pass'd, and of that goodly ship Nothing of tidings came; Till, in after-time, when her fate had grown But a tale of fear and a name—

It was beneath a tropic sky The tale was told to me; The sailor who told, in his youth had been Over that icy sea.

He said it was fearful to see them stand, Nor the living nor yet the dead, And the light glared strange in the glassy eyes Whose human look was fled.

For frost had done one half life's part, And kept them from decay;