The Sea-King :: :: University of Virginia Library

The night was fair, yet from the vault of heaven
The stars looked dimly on the world beneath,
The stranger gazed around—
It seemed as though the monster death
Had set his foot upon the frozen ground,
And with his noxious breath
Had blighted all beneath the deep blue sky.—
Around was one congealed expanse
Of dazzling snow, save where the waters dance,

And fling their ever foamy crest on high;—
The stranger slowly took his way
Along the margin of a deep ravine,
Ice-rocks in wild confusion round him lay
Like monuments of things that once have been,
Around, above him, and below,
Was nought but ice and frozen snow.