III

      'Oh, save me! Oh, guide me!

      And bid the deep hide me,

For he grasps me now by the hair!'

      The loud Ocean heard,

      To its blue depth stirred,

And divided at her prayer;

      And under the water

      The Earth's white daughter

Fled like a sunny beam;

      Behind her descended

      Her billows, unblended

With the brackish Dorian stream:—­

      Like a gloomy stain

      On the emerald main

Alpheus rushed behind,—­

      As an eagle pursuing

      A dove to its ruin

Down the streams of the cloudy wind.