Books and other items printed in Gaelic from 1871 to 1900 > Gaelic bards, and original poems

THE HAUNTED WATER OP DUBH-THALAMH.
247
Now on the land, and now on the sea,
And now on the rocking boat.
And there’s a form, a clouded form,
In a shroud of misty light,
That darker makes the tempest wild—
More terrible that night.
It rests on the gunwale and looks in his face,
And it glares so fierce and fell;
While it breathes through its throat, with that dismal note,
’Twixt a groan and an angry yell—
A note of paiii and agony;
A note to hear with dread;
A wrathful note—a struggling cry,
By fear and fierceness fed!
Then at him it eagerly reach’d at last,
And it growl’d like a beast o’er it’s prey—
Till he started back with a shuddering haste,
And the vision pass’d away.
Tenfold more wild the night became—
Tenfold more black the sky, •
With fearful leap the billows sweep,
And the winds breathe a sorrowing sigh.
’Tis not the moaning element,
’Tis not the wild, wild wind,
’Tis not the black, black trouble, pent
In the sky, which moves his mind.
’Tis the vision’d form that comes once more
To press, like a weight on his soul;