O’er the naked keel as she best might slide, ‘Neath the ship’s travail the_y scarce might float.īut he rose and stood in the rocking boat. Like a leaf that’s drawn to a water-wheel. I prayed for myself and quaked with fear,Īnd he said, “Put back! she must not die!”Īnd back with the current’s force they reel ‘Twas then o’er the splitting bulwarks’ brimĪnd through the whirled surf he knew her face. They struck with the strained oars’ flash and dip. Whicb the gulf grapples and the waves strip, ” Row, row as you’d live! All here must die!”
” What! none to be saved but these and I?” “Row! the sea’s smooth and the night is clear!” The next he snatched the Prince ‘mid the din.Ĭut the boat loose, and the youth leaped in.Ī few friends leaped with him, standing near. ‘Mid all those folk that the waves must whelm.Ī great King’s heir for the waves to whelm,īy the stealthy stab of the sharp reef pierced :
The King’s ships heard it and knew not why. ‘Tis said that afar - a shrill strange sigh. Of three hundred living that now must die.Īn instant shriek that sprang to the shock That leaped o’er the deep! - the grievous cry The knights and the ladies raised a song.Ī song, - nay, a shriek that rent the sky. Is a songbird’s course so swift on the wing?”Īnd under the winter stars’ still throng.įrom brown throats, white throats, merry and strong, Till she flew as the spirit flies from the dead:Īnd the Prince cried, “Friends, ’tis the hour to sing! To the double flight of the ship and the moon : The sails were set, and the oars kept tune “But at midnight’s stroke they cleared the bay,Īnd the White Ship furrowed the water-way. The night was light, and they danced on the deck. The rowers made good cheer without check Though we sail from the harbour at midnight.” “Our speed shall overtake my father’s flight The Prince was a lawless shameless youth įrom his father’s loins he sprang without ruth :Īnd the devil’s dues in him were eighteen.Īnd now he cried : “Bring wine from below In all that train to the Prince assigned. With courtiers and sailors gathered there, The King set sail with the eve’s south wind, Shall cross the water in the White Ship.” Quoth the King: “My ships are chosen each one, “Witb masts fair-pennoned as Norman spears ” The famed White Ship is mine in the bay.įrom Harfleur’s harbour she sails to-day, ‘ In that ship with the archer carved at her prow: “He was borne to the realm you rule o’er now “And cried : ‘By this clasp I claim command
When he caught the English soil in his grip, Vhen the King and the Prince might journey home:įor Christmas cheer is to home hearts dear,Īnd he held to the King, in all men’s sight,įrom whose boat your father’s foot did slip ‘Twas sworn and sealed, and the day had come He had struck to crown himself and his son Īnd when to the chase his court would crowd,Īnd shrieked : “Our cry is from King to God!”Īnd next with his son he sailed to France The times bad changed when on either coast That after his death his son should reign. (Lands are swayed by a King on a throne.) The loss of the king’s heir resulted in years of civil war. The ship was sailing from France to England, and on November 1120, it sank with all aboard, including the prince’s illegitimate sister and brother and other members of the court. The White Ship, a ballad by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, tells the story of the sinking of the White Ship, and the death of William Adelin, the son and heir to King Henry I.
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