  Glad sea horses! Sad sea horses! Rear the head, and toss the mane, Spread out wide in bands together. Face the boundless deep again! Grand white horses! Stand, white horses! Just one moment calm and still, In the bright and sparkling sunshine! None would dream your wrath would kill. Great sea horses! Stately horses! When you gallop still be kind: Where is strength to curb your fury, Where are reins your mouths to bind? Urging onward, surging onward, Wild your onset, fierce and free! Proudly rides a ship to battle O’er the line ’twixt sky and sea. Wait, white horses! Bait, white horses! While you don those trappings new; Now your noble chests are wrapt in Sumptuous folds of green-fringed blue. Tall white horses! Small white horses! Can it be in peace or war, Thus you madly race the ocean Till you reach the sand-strewn bar? Champing horses! Ramping horses! Mid the roaring, mid the noise, Ere your fetlocks churn the billows, Proudly they uplifted poise. Darting horses! Parting horses! They have broken loose away, Flinging far behind their traces, As they plunge among the spray! Racing horses! Pacing horses! When you speed with foam-shod feet, Does, unseen, some ghost or spirit Prick your flanks with spurrings fleet? With the sinews you possess, Dashing high, above the waters, Heads which never knew distress! Fighting horses! Biting horses! Open mouths and nostrils wide, Arching necks and tangled forelocks, Snapping jaws on either side. Fierce wild horses! Pierce wild horses! As the ship doth glide along, They have struck athwart the bulwarks Blow on blow, dealt loud and strong. Mad white horses! Bad white horses! Has the vessel spoilt your chase? How you turn aside to lash it, In a passionate embrace! Splashing horses! Crashing horses! Soon you frolic left and right, Angels guard storm-beaten sailors Who encounter you to-night! |
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