The strange silence, broken only by the measured dip of the oar and the soft plashing of the water against your cleaving prow, and the occasional hoarse cries of the gondoliers as you pass another of these black, funeral barges; the few and feeble lamps, giving you momentary glimpses of balconies and finely carven arches; the sudden intensification of the silence and the darkness as you abruptly leave the Grand Canal and slip along one of the narrower waterways, always with tall houses on both s
" VI Well: while was fashioning This creature of cleaving wing, The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything VI VII Prepared a sinister mate For her——so gaily great—— A Shape of Ice, for the time fat and dissociate VII ———— VIII And as the smart ship grew In stature, grace, and hue In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.
There was a moment of breathless suspense, then one bird loosed its hold and the huge block of stone hurtled through the air, but thanks to the presence of mind of the helmsman, who turned our ship violently in another direction, it fell into the sea close beside us, cleaving it asunder till we could nearly see the bottom.
