The rowers made good cheer without check; The lords and ladies obeyed his beck;70 The night was light and they danced on the deck.
But at midnight's stroke they cleared the bay, And the White Ship furrowed the water-way.
The sails were set, and the oars kept tune To the double flight of the ship and the moon:75
Swifter and swifter the White Ship sped Till she flew as the spirit flies from the dead:
As white as a lily glimmered she Like a ship's fair ghost upon the sea.
And the Prince cried, "Friends, 'tis the hour to sing!80 Is a songbird's course so swift on the wing?"
And under the winter stars' still throng, From brown throats, white throats, merry and strong, The knights and the ladies raised a song.
A song,—nay, a shriek that rent the sky,85 That leaped o'er the deep!—the grievous cry Of three hundred living that now must die.
An instant shriek that sprang to the shock As the ship's keel felt the sunken rock.
'Tis said that afar—a shrill strange sigh—90 The King's ships heard it and knew not why.