Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 5.djvu/627

THE ISLAND.

 

---

---

 

CANTO THE FIRST.

I.

The morning watch was come; the vessel lay

Her course, and gently made her liquid way;^[1]
The cloven billow flashed from off her prow
In furrows formed by that majestic plough;
The waters with their world were all before;
Behind, the South Sea's many an islet shore.
The quiet night, now dappling, 'gan to wane,
Dividing darkness from the dawning main;
The dolphins, not unconscious of the day,
Swam high, as eager of the coming ray;10
The stars from broader beams began to creep,
And lift their shining eyelids from the deep;^[2]
The sail resumed its lately shadowed white,
And the wind fluttered with a freshening flight;
The purpling Ocean owns the coming Sun,
But ere he break—a deed is to be done.

II.

The gallant Chief^[3] within his cabin slept,

Secure in those by whom the watch was kept:

1. ——and made before the breeze her way.—[MS. D. erased.]
2. ——their doubtful shimmer from the deep.—[MS. D. erased.]
3. [William Bligh, the son of Cornish parents, was born September 9,