Page:Poems Cook.djvu/321

Now the red flash breaks,
The thunder-volley shakes,
And billows boil with hissing coil,
Like huge snow-crested snakes.
 The mad winds roar,
 The rain sheets pour,
And screaming loud 'mid wave and cloud
 The white gulls soar.
Diving deep and tossing high,
Round that same ship, there am I;
Till at last I mount the mast,
In the tight reef hanging fast;
While the fierce and plunging sea
Boweth down the stout cross-tree;
Till the sharp and straining creak
Echoeth the tempest shriek.

Another peal! another flash!
Top-gallants start with snapping crash.
"Quick! quick! All hands!" one mighty sweep,
And giant guns are in the deep.
Hark! the heavy axe below
Whirls and rings with blow on blow;
And I feel the timber quiver,
Like a bulrush on a river.
Still I twine about the pine,
 Till a wild and bursting cry
Tells the fearful work is done;
—The ship leaps up—the mast is gone,
 And away with it go I.

Now I dance and dash again
Headlong through the howling main;
While the lightning groweth stronger,
And the thunder rolleth longer.
Now I feel a hard hand clutch me,
 With a wildly-snatching hold;

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