In places the water had thumbed the thick sunglow to patches Of oil bloom, peacock flare, adroit black bronze; And I was a diver, slime-silkened, hot with hot gold scratches Of hammered glitter, slipping from hammered bastions Down under dense foam slaver, down under tons Of weed trash, polyp, down to the cool uncluttered deep sea garrisons. There I blundered through smoke of dim turquoise, corroded old Quinquiremes and galleons and Chinese Junks and swan ships of Egypt crazy with gold; Every vessel that had ever brawled with the seas; Green wrecks, and there went out a glittering vapor from these; And blunt inquisitive fishes vexed their beauty with vacant solemnities. Tiberius, I tell you it would have seriously pleased your flesh, It would have curiously delighted the bone of your thighs To go under as I did, pulled through a shimmering mesh Of sun-maddened water, bumping fish with enormous eyes; You would leave your slim dancers, your gleaming women with cries To go under as I did, sliding down a sleek-shouldered dream, not otherwise. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON THE DEATH OF MRS. (NOW LADY) THROCKMORTON'S BULLFINCH by WILLIAM COWPER HYMN TO GOD MY GOD, IN MY SICKNESS by JOHN DONNE OVER THE RIVER by NANCY WOODBURY PRIEST A BALLADE OF EVOLUTION by GRANT ALLEN PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 69. AL-MAKUTADIR by EDWIN ARNOLD |