Of the wind-cloven wave to the chasm of the deep
It sinks, and the walls of the watery vale 15
Whose depths of dread calm are unmoved by the gale,
Dim mirrors of ruin, hang gleaming about;
While the surf, like a chaos of stars, like a rout
Of death-flames, like whirlpools of fire-flowing iron,
With splendour and terror the black ship environ, 20
Or like sulphur-flakes hurled from a mine of pale fire
In fountains spout o’er it.  In many a spire
The pyramid-billows with white points of brine
In the cope of the lightning inconstantly shine,
As piercing the sky from the floor of the sea. 25
The great ship seems splitting! it cracks as a tree,
While an earthquake is splintering its root, ere the blast
Of the whirlwind that stripped it of branches has passed. 
The intense thunder-balls which are raining from Heaven
Have shattered its mast, and it stands black and riven. 30
The chinks suck destruction.  The heavy dead hulk
On the living sea rolls an inanimate bulk,
Like a corpse on the clay which is hungering to fold
Its corruption around it.  Meanwhile, from the hold,
One deck is burst up by the waters below, 35
And it splits like the ice when the thaw-breezes blow
O’er the lakes of the desert!  Who sit on the other? 
Is that all the crew that lie burying each other,
Like the dead in a breach, round the foremast?  Are those
Twin tigers, who burst, when the waters arose, 40
In the agony of terror, their chains in the hold;
(What now makes them tame, is what then made them bold;)
Who crouch, side by side, and have driven, like a crank,
The deep grip of their claws through the vibrating plank
Are these all?  Nine weeks the tall vessel had lain 45
On the windless expanse of the watery plain,
Where the death-darting sun cast no shadow at noon,
And there seemed to be fire in the beams of the moon,
Till a lead-coloured fog gathered up from the deep,
Whose breath was quick pestilence; then, the cold sleep 50
Crept, like blight through the ears of a thick field of corn,
O’er the populous vessel.  And even and morn,
With their hammocks for coffins the seamen aghast
Like dead men the dead limbs of their comrades cast
Down the deep, which closed on them above and around, 55
And the sharks and the dogfish their grave-clothes unbound,
And were glutted like Jews with this manna rained down
From God on their wilderness.  One after one
The mariners died; on the eve of this day,
When the tempest was gathering in cloudy array, 60
But seven remained.  Six the thunder has smitten,
And they lie black as mummies on which Time has written
His scorn of the embalmer; the seventh, from the deck