LOCAL SCENERY I SHARROW GROT. 61 



They grasp them, and with boiling spray 



Torture them, fierce, like monsters of the brine 



Seeking to strangle, in their giant folds, 



Some foe whose hardihood provoked their wrath. 



They fall they fall ! -the wearied waters fall 



Retiring low and moaning overspent 



And sullen with their efforts thus subdued. 



? Tis but a pause; again again they come 



Dim and unending, like eternity! 



Their whitening crests, encountering the blast, 



Are sprinkled round, like rain, in hissing spray 



And dashed above the cliff the crags anew 



Are overwhelmed with rapid, roaring foam, 



Yet still they rise unconquered o'er the flood 



Shaking their dripping brows. 



Above, obscure 



With pitchy darkness, hang the cloudy nests 

 Of the coiled lightning circled round with groups 

 Of shapeless gloom, that rattle their deep voice 

 Of echoing thunder to the raging winds, 

 And from their perilous wings shake sulphurous flame. 



Fearless, amidst 



The *stormy petrels' and the -(-sea-mews' brood 

 Screaming in dissonance above the surge, 

 Skims the brave fisher's bark, and he, unmoved, 

 Grasping the shrouds with countenance intent 

 Studies the aspect of the threat'ning South 

 Where in its gloom, mysteriously obscure, 

 Looms the wild genius of the lowering storm 

 Like the dark spectre of the Brocken,J born 

 In gathering mountain mist and clothed in clouds. 

 Away ! the little vessel flies Away ! 

 Meeting each billow as an old, old friend 

 And plunging, dauntless, through the snowy brine 

 So well she knows thy flood, thou Mighty Sea 

 Tn storm and sun-shine hurricane and calm. 



FRANZ. 



* Procellaria pelagica. f Larus canus ( Linn.) 



I An account of this optical phenomenon is given in BrewsterV 

 Natural Magic. 



