Explore "The Island" by Lord Byron on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I / The morning watch was come; the vessel lay / Her course, and gently made her liquid way; / The cloven billow flashed from off her prow / In furrows formed by that majestic plough; / The waters with their world were all before; / Behind, the South Sea's many an islet shore.
The quiet night, now dappling, 'gan to wane, / Dividing darkness from the dawning main; / The dolphins, not unconscious of the day, / Swam high, as eager of the coming ray; / The stars from broader beams began to creep, / And lift their shining eyelids from the deep; / The sail resumed its lately shadowed white, / And the wind fluttered with a freshening flight; / The purpling Ocean owns the coming Sun, / But ere he break - a deed is to be done.