The Bloody Sea

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.