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

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64
SONGS, LEGENDS, AND BALLADS.

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—