Portending danger, screeching sea gulls wail,

In wild confusion left the angry wave

For distant Staffa's high basaltic cave,

Big heaved the flood, and loud the billows roar

In blackening heaps screened Morvem's distant shore;

High blew the winds, and quick the lightning's flash

And gilded hailstones fell with many a crash.

The story ran from sire to sire.

That Heaven itself was filled with living fire;

Of them no more is told, no more is known,