The Bride of Abydos 2-24
  
CANTO THE SECOND.

XXIV.

One bound he made, and gain'd the sand:
Already at his feet hath sunk
The foremost of the prying band,
A gasping head, a quivering trunk:
Another falls - but round him close
A swarming circle of his foes;
From right to left his path he cleft,
And almost met the meeting wave:
His boat appears - not five oars' length -
His comrades strain with desperate strength -
Oh! are they yet in time to save?
His feet the foremost breakers lave;
His band are plunging in the bay,
Their sabres glitter through the spray;
We - wild - unwearied to the strand
They struggle - now they touch the land!
They come - 'tis but to add to slaughter -
His heart's best blood is on the water!

George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) ByronLong