Explore "The Mermaid. from the Russian of Pushkin" by George Borrow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Close by a lake, begirt with forest, / To save his soul, a Monk intent, / In fasting, prayer and labours sorest / His days and nights, secluded, spent; / A grave already to receive him / He fashion'd, stooping, with his spade, / And speedy, speedy death to give him, / Was all that of the Saints he pray'd.
As once in summer's time of beauty, / On bended knee, before his door, / To God he paid his fervent duty, / The woods grew more and more obscure: / Down o'er the lake a fog descended, / And slow the full moon, red as blood, / Midst threat'ning clouds up heaven wended -- / Then gazed the Monk upon the flood.