After the whistle's roar has bellowed and shuddered, Shaking the sleeping town and the somnolent river, The deep toned floating of the pilot's bell Suddenly warns the engines. They stop like heart-beats that abruptly stop, The shore glides to us, in a wide low curve. And then -- supreme revelation of the river -- The tackle is loosed -- the long gangplank swings outwards -- And poised at the end of it, half-naked beneath the searchlight, A blue-black negro with gleaming teeth waits for his chance to leap. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN by RUDYARD KIPLING THE OWL AND THE PUSSY CAT by EDWARD LEAR ALAS! by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 76. YA WALI by EDWIN ARNOLD THE GULF by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE THE SECOND BROTHER; ACT 1, SCENE 1 by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES SEALED ORDERS by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON |