noon
`` Mister Binks , brace round the head-yards , and up with the jib as soon as the anchor 's a-weigh . '' The windlass clinked as the iron palls caught the strain of the cable , the anchor was wrenched from its oozy bed , the vessel 's head fell off , and , gathering way , she moved quietly down the River Garonne . `` It ceased : yet still the sails made on A pleasant noise till noon -- A noise like that of a hidden brook In the leafy month of June . Till noon we quietly sailed on , Yet never a breeze did breathe ; Slowly and smoothly went the ship , Moved onward from beneath . '' The great lumbering brig , with yards square , main-sail hauled up , and the jib and trysail in the brails , lay listlessly rolling on the easy swell of the water , giving a gentle send forward every minute or so , when the sluggish sails would come with a thundering slap against the masts , and the loose cordage would rattle like a drum-major 's ratan on a spree . The sea was one glassy mirror of undulations , shimmering out into full blaze as the rising sun just threw its rays along the crest of the ocean swell ; and then , dipping down into the rolling mass , the hue would change to a dark green , and , coming up again under the brig 's black counter , would swish out into a little shower of bubbles , and sparkle again joyously . Away off in the distance lay the island of Jamaica -- the early haze about the mountain tops rising like a white lace veil from the deep valleys below , with here and there a white dot of a cluster of buildings gleaming out from the sombre land like the flicker of a heliotrope , and at intervals the base of the coast bursting forth in a long , heavy fringe of foam , as the lazy breakers chafed idly about the rocks of some projecting headland .