CYRIL TOURNEUR

A sea that heaves with horror of the night,

As maddened by the moon that hangs aghast

With strain and torment of the ravening blast,

Haggard as hell, a bleak blind bloody light;

No shore but one red reef of rock in sight,

Whereon the waifs of many a wreck were cast

And shattered in the fierce nights overpast

Wherein more souls toward hell than heaven took flight;

And‘ twixt the shark-toothed rocks and swallowing shoals

A cry as out of hell from all these souls

Sent through the sheer gorge of the slaughtering sea,

Whose thousand throats, full-fed with life by death,

Fill the black air with foam and furious breath;

And over all these one star — Chastity.