As when enclosing harpooners assail
In Hyperborean seas the slumb’ring whale,
Soon as their javelins pierce his scaly side,
He groans, he darts impetuous down the tide;
And racked all o’er with lacerating pain,
He flies remote beneath the flood in vain—
So with resistless haste the wounded ship
Scuds from pursuing waves along the deep;
While, dashed apart by her dividing prow,
Like burning adamant the waters glow;