STROLLING along By the teeming docks, I watch the ships put out. Black ships that heave and lunge And move like mastodons Arising from lethargic sleep. The fathomed harbor Calls them not nor dares Them to a strain of action, But outward, on and outward, Sounding low-reverberating calls, Shaggy in the half-lit distance, They pass the pointed headland, View the wide, far-lifting wilderness And leap with cumulative speed To test the challenge of the sea. Plunging, Doggedly onward plunging, Into salt and mist and foam and sun. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOMESDAY BOOK: HENRY BAKER, AT NEW YORK by EDGAR LEE MASTERS AFTER AUGHRIM by ARTHUR GERALD GEOGHEGAN CROSSING THE PLAINS by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER WHITE FIELDS by JAMES STEPHENS ON BEING ASKED FOR A WAR POEM by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS |