3 books to know Juvenalian Satire. Lord Byron

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СКАЧАТЬ they had to cope

      For want of water, and their solid mess

      Was scant enough: in vain the telescope

      Was used—nor sail nor shore appear'd in sight,

      Nought but the heavy sea, and coming night.

      Again the weather threaten'd,—again blew

      A gale, and in the fore and after hold

      Water appear'd; yet, though the people knew

      All this, the most were patient, and some bold,

      Until the chains and leathers were worn through

      Of all our pumps:—a wreck complete she roll'd,

      At mercy of the waves, whose mercies are

      Like human beings during civil war.

      Then came the carpenter, at last, with tears

      In his rough eyes, and told the captain he

      Could do no more: he was a man in years,

      And long had voyaged through many a stormy sea,

      And if he wept at length, they were not fears

      That made his eyelids as a woman's be,

      But he, poor fellow, had a wife and children,—

      Two things for dying people quite bewildering.

      The ship was evidently settling now

      Fast by the head; and, all distinction gone,

      Some went to prayers again, and made a vow

      Of candles to their saints—but there were none

      To pay them with; and some look'd o'er the bow;

      Some hoisted out the boats; and there was one

      That begg'd Pedrillo for an absolution,

      Who told him to be damn'd—in his confusion.

      Some lash'd them in their hammocks; some put on

      Their best clothes, as if going to a fair;

      Some cursed the day on which they saw the sun,

      And gnash'd their teeth, and, howling, tore their hair;

      And others went on as they had begun,

      Getting the boats out, being well aware

      That a tight boat will live in a rough sea,

      Unless with breakers close beneath her lee.

      The worst of all was, that in their condition,

      Having been several days in great distress,

      'T was difficult to get out such provision

      As now might render their long suffering less:

      Men, even when dying, dislike inanition;

      Their stock was damaged by the weather's stress:

      Two casks of biscuit and a keg of butter

      Were all that could be thrown into the cutter.

      But in the long-boat they contrived to stow

      Some pounds of bread, though injured by the wet;

      Water, a twenty-gallon cask or so;

      Six flasks of wine; and they contrived to get

      A portion of their beef up from below,

      And with a piece of pork, moreover, met,

      But scarce enough to serve them for a luncheon—

      Then there was rum, eight gallons in a puncheon.

      The other boats, the yawl and pinnace, had

      Been stove in the beginning of the gale;

      And the long-boat's condition was but bad,

      As there were but two blankets for a sail,

      And one oar for a mast, which a young lad

      Threw in by good luck over the ship's rail;

      And two boats could not hold, far less be stored,

      To save one half the people then on board.

      'T was twilight, and the sunless day went down

      Over the waste of waters; like a veil,

      Which, if withdrawn, would but disclose the frown

      Of one whose hate is mask'd but to assail,

      Thus to their hopeless eyes the night was shown,

      And grimly darkled o'er the faces pale,

      And the dim desolate deep: twelve days had Fear

      Been their familiar, and now Death was here.

      Some trial had been making at a raft,

      With little hope in such a rolling sea,

      A sort of thing at which one would have laugh'd,

      If any laughter at such times could be,

      Unless with people who too much have quaff'd,

      And have a kind of wild and horrid glee,

      Half epileptical and half hysterical:—

      Their preservation would have been a miracle.

      At half-past eight o'clock, booms, hencoops, spars,

      And all things, for a chance, had been cast loose,

      That still could keep afloat the struggling tars,

      For yet they strove, although of no great use:

      There was no light in heaven but a few stars,

      The boats put off o'ercrowded with their crews;

      She gave a heel, and then a lurch to port,

      And, going down head foremost—sunk, in short.

      Then rose from sea СКАЧАТЬ