64 THE PHANTOM SHIP. 



O'er waters dark, that unearthly bark 



Speeds gallantly and gay ; 

 But there is not a human eye may mark 



Where she hath passed with day : 

 Before her prow no waves are white 



On her deck there is not a spray — 

 Nor a line of light on her ocean flight 



Her passage to betray. 



What makes her veil in the moonlight pale 



Is not for me to say, 

 But they viewed her sail in the blackening gale 



Though not in the dawning gray. 

 She glides along on her night-wings strong 



And the louder the tempest's sway, 

 And the rougher the sea the more merrily 



Come the cheers of her crew for aye. 



When storms are near, you may see her clear 



On the verge of the watery fray ; 

 To the beach where the drowned are strewed around 



She comes with her funeral lay : 

 Her timbers' creak and the dying's shriek 



From the phantom vessel play ; 

 And you hear unearthly voices speak 



As those for the dead who pray. 



Through the livelong night she pursues her flight 



And nothing on earth can stay 

 The skeleton ship from her shadowy trip 



'Till lost in the morning's ray ; 

 For then, as they tell, there comes a spell 



That ghostly voyage to lay 

 Where winds are low and the cock doth crow 



With light in the Dead-man's bay. 



Eos. 



