Classic and Contemporary Poetry
RECOVERY, by EMILIE ROSE MACAULAY First Line: When this so bitter tide Last Line: We shall cry and laugh, as sailors and children do. Alternate Author Name(s): Macaulay, Rose Subject(s): Navy - United States; Peace; War; American Navy | ||||||||
When this so bitter tide Shall turn and ebb to the waste whence it came, The world, like a wrecked ship shorn of her pride, A battered ship, tipped on a riddled side, A shattered ship, shall ride From storm to port, bankrupt of all but shame. In that dark dawn all we As lost mariners shall reel crazily On a new earth, grown stranger than the sea. As drowned men shall we come, All pale, all sick, all dumb, (But some, oh, some Shall come not even thus, so dumb they be.) We'll have no words to string, no tales to tell Of the unutterable Black dreams dreamt in the drifting deeps of hell. But little things of earth Shall stab us through with mirth Street lamps, each like a new-sprung celandine, White daisies and red wine, And small wise stars that shiver and blink and shine. So, bankrupt of hope and blind To faith and love, we'll find, We, even we, joy in things small and kind. Though it lie drowned, the world we dreamt we knew, Oh, though no dream be true We shall cry and laugh, as sailors and children do. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...READING MY POEMS FROM WORLD WAR II by WILLIAM MEREDITH WHEN THE GREAT GRAY SHIPS COME IN [AUGUST 20, 1898] by GUY WETMORE CARRYL TOM BOWLING ['S EPITAPH] by CHARLES DIBDIN HOW WE BURNED THE 'PHILADELPHIA' by BARRETT EASTMAN BARNEY'S INVITATION by PHILIP FRENEAU ON THE MEMORABLE VICTORY OF PAUL JONES by PHILIP FRENEAU THE YANKEE PRIVATEER by ARTHUR HALE OLD IRONSIDES by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES THE BATTLE OF THE KEGS by FRANCIS HOPKINSON MANY SISTERS TO MANY BROTHERS by EMILIE ROSE MACAULAY |
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