midnight
Where unrecorded names and navies rust , and untold hopes and anchors rot ; where in her murderous hold this frigate earth is ballasted with bones of millions of the drowned ; there , in that awful water-land , there was thy most familiar home . Thou hast been where bell or diver never went ; hast slept by many a sailor 's side , where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them down . Thou saw ` st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship ; heart to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave ; true to each other , when heaven seemed false to them . Thou saw ` st the murdered mate when tossed by pirates from the midnight deck ; for hours he fell into the deeper midnight of the insatiate maw ; and his murderers still sailed on unharmed -- while swift lightnings shivered the neighboring ship that would have borne a righteous husband to outstretched , longing arms . O head ! thou hast seen enough to split the planets and make an infidel of Abraham , and not one syllable is thine ! '' `` Sail ho ! ''