Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SEA DEAD, by J. D. MAHONEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SEA DEAD, by                    
First Line: The lone wolf's howl is a gruesome thing
Last Line: "when the sea gives up its dead."
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


THE lone wolf's howl is a gruesome thing
At night on a moonlit plain,
And bleaching bones in the arctic zones
When north lights wax and wane,
Gleam ghastly bright in the ghostly light;
Uncannier and more dread
Is this hollow rhyme which the billows chime—
"When the sea gives up its dead."

Deep, deep in the depths of the waters dark
Dwells a race of grinning skulls
Who went with a piercing cry in the night
Deep down with their wrecked hulls,
And there they bide through the endless years
On the ocean's sleepless bed
Trod by fleshless feet, for they tread and sing—
"When the sea gives up its dead."

They've a kingdom there at the mountain's base,
These men of the fleshless bones,
And wealth that rivals the spoils of Ind
Or the treasures Golconda owns.
They've heaps of gold from many a hold,
With the rust of years 'tis red,
And its clinking ring fits the dirge they sing—
"When the sea gives up its dead."

"When the sea gives up its dead," they sing,
And the metal clinks apace
As they rock and sway to the ocean's swell
At the aged mountain's base,
Till the eyrie things from the gloom come out
And gyrate overhead,
To view the sight and to hark the song—
"When the sea gives up its dead."

The endless halls in that ocean realm
Resound with the horrid strain,
"The dead, the dead;" so the echo rolls
In a far removed refrain,
And the phosphor light from the eyrie things
O'er the ghoulish crew is shed
Till their reeling shadows seem to chant—
"When the sea gives up its dead."

The lone black hours on a frozen trail
Will clutch at the sternest heart,
The Indian death song out of the night
Will cause the brave to start;
And yet withal what mind that kens
The horror broadcast spread
In every clime at the summons time,
"When the sea gives up its dead."





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net