Blair Collection > Selections from the Gaelic bards

24 MODERN GAELIC BARDS.
Our keel was well nigh hurled against
The shells and sedge;
The whole sea was lashing, dashing,
All through other.
It kept the seals aud mightiest monsters
In a pother.
The fury and the surging of the water,
And our good ship's swift way
Spatter'd their white brains on each billow,
Livid and grey.
With piteous wailing and complaining,
All the storm-toss' d horde,
Shouted out, "We're now your subjects;
Drag us on board."
And the small fish of the ocean
Turn'd over their white breast —
Dead, innumerable, with the raging
Of the furious sea's unrest.
The stones and shells of the deep channel
Were in motion ;
Swept from out their lowly bed
By the tumult of the ocean ;
Till the sea, like a great mess of pottage,
Troubled, muddy grew
With the blood of many mangled creatures,
Dirty red in hue —
Where the horn'd and clawy wild beasts,
Short-footed, splay;
With great wailing gumless mouths
Huge and wide open lay.
But the whole deep was full of spectres,
Loose and sprawling,
With the claws and with the tails of monsters
Pawing, squalling.
It was frightful even to hear them
Screech so loudly ;
The sound might move full fifty heroes
Stepping proudly.