Edwin Arlington Robinson — Ballade of a Ship

Down by the flash of the restless water        &nbsp The dim White Ship like a white bird lay; Laughing at life and the world they sought her,        &nbsp And out she swung to the silvering bay.        &nbsp Then off they flew on their roystering way, And the keen moon fired the light foam flying        &nbsp Up from the flood where the faint stars play, And the bones of the brave in the wave are lying. 'T was a king's fair son with a king's fair daughter,        &nbsp And full three hundred beside, they say, — Revelling on for the lone, cold slaughter        &nbsp So soon to seize them and hide them for aye;        &nbsp But they danced and they drank and their souls grew gay, Nor ever they knew of a ghoul's eye spying        &nbsp Their splendor a flickering phantom to stray Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying. Through the mist of a drunken dream they brought her        &nbsp (This wild white bird) for the sea-fiend's prey: The pitiless reef in his hard clutch caught her,        &nbsp And hurled her down where the dead men stay.        &nbsp A torturing silence of wan dismay — Shrieks and curses of mad souls dying —        &nbsp Then down they sank to slumber and sway Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying.        &nbsp       &nbsp       &nbsp ENVOY Prince, do you sleep to the sound alway        &nbsp Of the mournful surge and the sea-birds' crying? — Or does love still shudder and steel still slay,        &nbsp Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying?