Once our course was joyful, full of peace and pleasure.
Lightly blew the breezes, gayly danced the ripples,
Sparkling in the sunlight, flashing out like diamonds,
And the scattered islets slept in emerald beauty.
From the banks beside us flowerets waved their greeting,
Nodding in the zephyrs, breathing perfumed blessings;
And the pines and cedars and the oaks and elm-trees,
Poplars, hollies, laurels, crooned in varied voices
All their glad contentment: like Eolus harpstrings,
Sounding angel music through the halls of slumber.
And the swallow's twitter and the robin's whistle
And the merry mock-bird all conjoined to greet us,
As we speeded onward under the hot sunlight,
Shining down in splendor on our happy progress.
Then our course was joyful.
But through all our pleasure came a nameless terror,
Came a dread of something that we could not fathom,
Creeping in our spirits, rising, swelling, spreading,
Like a distant storm-cloud, spite of all resistance.
O the storm and crashing! O the raving tempest!
And the streams of lightning heralding the thunder!
And the jagged rock-points, piercing through the piling
Of the foam and frothing! And the driving spray-drops!
And the horrid roaring! And the demon darkness!
And the dreadful rocking, shocking every moment
On some hidden terror!
And the baleful gleaming of the ghastly waters!
Ghastly in their whiteness, awful in their blackness!
O the crash and terror!
Whither are we drifting?
Far behind, the rapids, roaring, foaming, seething,
Dimly through the moonlight gleam as in a vision,
And the rocks are closing narrowly about them.
Still the tattered raiment of the cloud impinges
O'er our destined foreheads. Still the torrent round us
Whirls and roars and rushes, eddying and sweeping.
And the cliffs beside us, cold, gray, and relentless,
Leave us half in shadow, half in moon and starlight.
We can but go onward. Whither are we drifting?
Down the way before us, where the light and shadow
Weirdly shift and mingle, wondrous forms and visions,
Messengers from dreamland, throng upon our gazing.
Beatific glimpses of a world of splendor,
Ocean stretching peaceful far beyond the horizon,
Stately ports and havens, scenes of sylvan beauty.
But through all their pressing, all their constant crowding,
Dim and spectral figures like the forms of chaos,
Fearful in their vagueness, wave their phantom fingers
In a solemn warning.
Wrecks of ruined nations lie along the borders,
With their tattered pennons flapping sadly, slowly:
Skeleton-like, grimly, shows their wave-washed rib-work,
Half-submerged and whitened, piteous sight and awful.
And a crowd of voices, mingling in strange jargon,—
Howls and yells and shriekings, shouted cheers and blessings,
Wild expostulations, stern and earnest warnings,
Strains of sweetest music, peals of demon laughter,—
From the depths before us greet our awe-struck senses.
Whither are we drifting?
Lightly blew the breezes, gayly danced the ripples,
Sparkling in the sunlight, flashing out like diamonds,
And the scattered islets slept in emerald beauty.
From the banks beside us flowerets waved their greeting,
Nodding in the zephyrs, breathing perfumed blessings;
And the pines and cedars and the oaks and elm-trees,
Poplars, hollies, laurels, crooned in varied voices
All their glad contentment: like Eolus harpstrings,
Sounding angel music through the halls of slumber.
And the swallow's twitter and the robin's whistle
And the merry mock-bird all conjoined to greet us,
As we speeded onward under the hot sunlight,
Shining down in splendor on our happy progress.
Then our course was joyful.
But through all our pleasure came a nameless terror,
Came a dread of something that we could not fathom,
Creeping in our spirits, rising, swelling, spreading,
Like a distant storm-cloud, spite of all resistance.
O the storm and crashing! O the raving tempest!
And the streams of lightning heralding the thunder!
And the jagged rock-points, piercing through the piling
Of the foam and frothing! And the driving spray-drops!
And the horrid roaring! And the demon darkness!
And the dreadful rocking, shocking every moment
On some hidden terror!
And the baleful gleaming of the ghastly waters!
Ghastly in their whiteness, awful in their blackness!
O the crash and terror!
Whither are we drifting?
Far behind, the rapids, roaring, foaming, seething,
Dimly through the moonlight gleam as in a vision,
And the rocks are closing narrowly about them.
Still the tattered raiment of the cloud impinges
O'er our destined foreheads. Still the torrent round us
Whirls and roars and rushes, eddying and sweeping.
And the cliffs beside us, cold, gray, and relentless,
Leave us half in shadow, half in moon and starlight.
We can but go onward. Whither are we drifting?
Down the way before us, where the light and shadow
Weirdly shift and mingle, wondrous forms and visions,
Messengers from dreamland, throng upon our gazing.
Beatific glimpses of a world of splendor,
Ocean stretching peaceful far beyond the horizon,
Stately ports and havens, scenes of sylvan beauty.
But through all their pressing, all their constant crowding,
Dim and spectral figures like the forms of chaos,
Fearful in their vagueness, wave their phantom fingers
In a solemn warning.
Wrecks of ruined nations lie along the borders,
With their tattered pennons flapping sadly, slowly:
Skeleton-like, grimly, shows their wave-washed rib-work,
Half-submerged and whitened, piteous sight and awful.
And a crowd of voices, mingling in strange jargon,—
Howls and yells and shriekings, shouted cheers and blessings,
Wild expostulations, stern and earnest warnings,
Strains of sweetest music, peals of demon laughter,—
From the depths before us greet our awe-struck senses.
Whither are we drifting?