What I beheld was indescribable;
body by terror was dissundered from soul.
What met my eyes? A sea of blood I viewed
tempest-torn outwardly and inwardly;
the air swarmed with snakes, as with sharks the sea,
their hoods black as night, their pinions quicksilver;
billows roaring and rending like panthers
so that the sharks in terror of them lay dead on the shore.
The sea gave the shore not one moment’s respite;
every instant mountain-blocks fell crashing in blood.
Bloody wave fought with wave of blood,
whilst in their midst a skiff tossed up and down;
in that skiff were two men pale of cheek,
pale of cheek, naked, with hair dishevelled.
This Day in History
