WRIT IN WATER 



"Away then they bare him 



To the flood of the current, his fond loving com- 

 rades 

 As himself he had bidden. . . . 



The ring-stemmed vessel, 

 Bark of the atheling, lay there at anchor 



Icy in glimmer, and eager for sailing; 

 The beloved leader laid they down there, 

 Giver of rings, on the breast of the vessel. 



"And a gold-fashioned standard they stretched un- 



der heaven 

 High o'er his head, let the holm-currents bear 



him 

 Seaward consigned him. . . ." 



By the same dramatic intuitions of a sixth 

 sense which guided the Anglo-Saxon writ- 

 ers, Coleridge used the sea as a background 

 for his most memorable poem, as Joaquin 

 Miller did for one of his strongest "Co- 

 lumbus." In a word, if a poet will only 

 listen closely enough to its tuition, any 

 brook, river, or sea will half write his poem 

 for him, if given the metrical right of way, 

 as Schiller proved in his poem, "Der 

 Taucher": 



25 



