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Thomas Hood – from The Sea of Death

 Methought I saw
Like swiftly treading over endless space,
And at her footprint, but a bygone pace,
The ocean past, which with increasing wave,
Swallowed her steps like a pursuing grave.

Sad were my thoughts that anchored silently
On the dead waters of that passionless sea
Unstirred by any touch of living breath;
Silence hung over it, and drowsy Death
Like a gorged sea bird, slept with folded wings
On crowded carcasses – sad passive things
That wore the thin grey surface, like a veil
Over the calmness of their features pale.

And there were spring faced cherubs that did sleep
Like water lilies on that motionless deep
How beautiful, with bright unruffled hair
On sleek unfretted brows, and eyes that were
Buried in marble tombs, a pale eclipse.
And smile bedimpled cheeks and pleasant lips
Meekly apart, as if the soul intense
Spake out in dreams of its own innocence

….

So lay they garmented in torpid light
Under the pall of a transparent night
Like solemn apparitions lulled sublime
To everlasting rest – and with them Time
Slept, as he sleeps upon the silent face
Of a dark dial in a sunless place.