Oh, many a bark, to that breast grappled fast, Has gone down to the fearful and fathomless grave; Again, crash'd together the keel and the mast, To be seen toss'd aloft in the glee of the wave!-- Like the growth of a storm ever louder and clearer, Grows the roar of the gulf rising nearer and nearer. And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and roars, As when fire is with water commix'd and contending; And the spray of its wrath to the welkin up-soars, And flood upon flood hurries on, never ending, And as with the swell of the far thunder-boom, Rushes roaringly forth from the heart of the gloom. And, lo! from the heart of that far-floating gloom, Like the wing of the cygnet--what gleams on the sea? Lo! an arm and a neck glancing up from the tomb! Steering stalwart and shoreward: O joy, it is he! The left hand is lifted in triumph; behold, It waves as a trophy the goblet of gold! And he breathed deep, and he breathed long, And he greeted the heavenly light of the day. They gaze on each other,--they shout as they throng, "He lives--lo, the ocean has render'd its prey! And safe from the whirlpool, and free from the grave, Comes back to the daylight the soul of the brave!" And he comes, with the crowd in their clamor and glee; And the goblet his daring has won from the water He lifts to the king as he sinks on his knee And the king from her maidens has beckon'd his daughter. She pours to the boy the bright wine which they bring, And thus spoke the diver; "Long life to the King! "Happy they whom the rose-hues of daylight rejoice, The air and the sky that to mortals are given! May the horror below nevermore find a voice,-- Nor man stretch too far the wide mercy of Heaven! Nevermore,--nevermore may he lift from the sight The veil which is woven with terror and night! "Quick brightening like lightning the ocean rush'd o'er me, Wild floating, borne down fathom-deep from the day; Till a torrent rush'd out on the torrents that bore me, And doubled the tempest that whirl'd me away. Vain, vain was my struggle,--the circle had won me, Round and round in its dance the mad element spun me. "From the deep then I call'd upon God, and He heard me; In the dread of my need, He vouchsafed to mine eye A rock jutting out from the grave that interr'd me; I sprung there, I clung there,--and death pass'd me by. And, lo! where the goblet gleam'd through the abyss, By a coral reef saved from the far Fathomless. "Below, at the foot of that precipice drear, Spread the gloomy and purple and pathless Obscure! A silence of horror that slept on the ear, That the eye more appall'd might the horror endure; Salamander, snake, dragon--vast reptiles that dwell In the deep--coil'd about the grim jaws of their hell.