The hail like cannon-shot struck the sea And churn'd it white as a creamy foam; Then hail like battle-shot struck where we Stood looking a-sea from a sea-girt home -- Came shooting askance as if shot at the head; Then glass flew shiver'd and men fell down And pray'd where they fell, and the gray old town Lay riddled and helpless as if shot dead. Then lightning right full in the eyes! and then Fair women fell down flat on the face, And pray'd their pitiful Mother with tears, And pray'd black death as a hiding-place; And good priests pray'd for the sea-bound men As never good priests had pray'd for years. . . . Then God spake thunder! And then the rain! The great, white, beautiful, highborn rain! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 110. THE OASIS OF SIDI KHALED by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT GRANDMITHER, THINK NOT I FORGET by WILLA SIBERT CATHER A CLEVER WOMAN by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE MOZART'S REQUIEM by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS THE GYPSY by PHILIP EDWARD THOMAS ODES: BOOK 1: ODE 8. ON LEAVING HOLLAND by MARK AKENSIDE |