THE SEA OF BLOOD
| What I beheld was indescribable; | 2575 |
| 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; | 2580 |
| 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, | 2585 |
| 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. |