Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept

Towards the reef of Norman’s Woe.

And ever the fitful gusts between

A sound came from the land;

It was the sound of the trampling surf,

On the rocks and the hard sea-sand.

The breakers were right beneath her bows,—

She drifted a dreary wreck,

And the whooping billow swept the crew

Like icicles from her deck.