Classic Poem

Like some horrific Gorgon's mammoth skull,
Thrown up by Titan spade,
From out those caves
Where saurians with mastodons had played,
Before the sea had made their homes their graves,
And scared their ghosts with screech of sea-born mew and gull,

Is Ragnor's beetling brow, the seaman's dread,
That scowls by night and day
On that same sea
And with earth-shaking sound is heard to say,--
Which sound the waves roll back with mocking glee--
"What! Not enough of life ye must e'en have the dead?"

The ragged remnants of an ancient crown
Adorn his kingly head:
'Tis Hastyngs' Tower.
Here dwelt a maiden fair, so fair, 'tis said,
That suitors rich and princely sought her bower,
To sue in vain: whereat her father's haughty brow would frown.