Page:Rosalind and Helen (Shelley, Forman).djvu/56

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LINES

WRITTEN AMONG THE EUGANEAN HILLS,

October, 1818.




Many a green isle needs must be
In the deep wide sea of misery,
Or the mariner, worn and wan,
Never thus could voyage on
Day and night, and night and day,5
Drifting on his dreary way,
With the solid darkness black
Closing round his vessel's track;
Whilst above the sunless sky,
Big with clouds, hangs heavily,10
And behind the tempest fleet
Hurries on with lightning feet,
Riving sail, and cord, and plank,
Till the ship has almost drank
Death from the o'er-brimming deep15
And sinks down, down, like that sleep
When the dreamer seems to be
Weltering through eternity;
And the dim low line before