...of a swimmer

"How we mocked him! Our moment came, we hurtled forth, pretending to glory in the adventure, thrashing, singing, cursing, strangling, rationalising, rescuing, killing, inventing rules and stories and relationships, giving up, struggling on, but dying all, and still in darkness, until only a battered remnant was left to croak 'Onward, upward,' like a bitter echo. Then they too fell silent-victims, I can only presume, of the last frightful wave - and the moment came when I also, utterly desolate and spent, thrashed my last and gave myself over to the current, to sink or float as might be, but swim no more. Whereupon, marvellous to tell, in an instant the sea grew still! Then warmly, gently, the tide turned, began to bear me, as it does now, onward and upward will-I nill-I, like a flood of joy - and I recalled with dismay my dead friend's teaching.

[Night-Sea Journey, Barth, J.]