Page:The Vow of the Peacock.pdf/268

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;