Page:Lyrical ballads, Volume 1, Wordsworth, 1800.djvu/224

This page has been validated.

172

The many men so beautiful,
And they all dead did lie!
And a million million slimy things
Liv'd on—and so did I.


I look'd upon the rotting Sea,
And drew my eyes away;
I look'd upon the ghastly deck,
And there the dead men lay.


I look'd to Heaven, and try'd to pray;
But or ever a prayer had gusht,
A wicked whisper came and made
My heart as dry as dust.


I clos'd my lids and kept them close,
Till the balls like pulses beat;
For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky
Lay like a load on my weary eye,
And the dead were at my feet.