Classic and Contemporary Poetry
GHOST SHIP, by ROBERT NEALEY First Line: I did not even then quite understand Last Line: She quickly sailed away and soon grew dim. Subject(s): Ghost Ships; Sailing & Sailors; Sea; Ocean | ||||||||
I did not even then quite understand, How anyone could come upon the land Out there at sea in harsh and salty swell In lanes where storms blow direct from hell. I looked back along our wake through the raw Winter day, and there alone I saw Bare towering masts above the salt foam, All six of them set near my Yankee home; And then I spied the letters on her stern And knew that this forsaken ship in turn Was built in Bath by old craftsmen from Maine, Whose slim careful art fled through the rain. It was imagination, perhaps not Perhaps, it was a dream that showed her wrought, A lonely ship that sailed without her crew, But there she was and through the sea she flew. Silently, yet splendidly alive, Her bow curtsied in swift and graceful dive; She shook out snowy sails and stepped on air, I marvelling at anything as fair Or trim; too fast to have been made by hands Of mortal men. Where loneliness now stands And vanishes beyond the seas' rim, She quickly sailed away and soon grew dim. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HALL OF OCEAN LIFE by JOHN HOLLANDER JULY FOURTH BY THE OCEAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS BOATS IN A FOG by ROBINSON JEFFERS CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE FIGUREHEAD by LEONIE ADAMS |
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