Down by the flash of the restless water
       &nbsp The dim White Ship like a white bird lay;
Laughing at life and the world they sought her,
       &nbsp And out she swung to the silvering bay.
       &nbsp Then off they flew on their roystering way,
And the keen moon fired the light foam flying
       &nbsp Up from the flood where the faint stars play,
And the bones of the brave in the wave are lying.

'T was a king's fair son with a king's fair daughter,
       &nbsp And full three hundred beside, they say, —
Revelling on for the lone, cold slaughter
       &nbsp So soon to seize them and hide them for aye;
       &nbsp But they danced and they drank and their souls grew gay,
Nor ever they knew of a ghoul's eye spying
       &nbsp Their splendor a flickering phantom to stray
Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying.

Through the mist of a drunken dream they brought her
       &nbsp (This wild white bird) for the sea-fiend's prey:
The pitiless reef in his hard clutch caught her,
       &nbsp And hurled her down where the dead men stay.
       &nbsp A torturing silence of wan dismay —
Shrieks and curses of mad souls dying —
       &nbsp Then down they sank to slumber and sway
Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying.

       &nbsp       &nbsp       &nbsp ENVOY

Prince, do you sleep to the sound alway
       &nbsp Of the mournful surge and the sea-birds' crying? —
Or does love still shudder and steel still slay,
       &nbsp Where the bones of the brave in the wave are lying?