A WHALE of great porosity And small specific gravity, Dived down with much velocity Beneath the sea's concavity. But soon the weight of water Squeezed in his fat immensity, Which varied -- as it ought to -- Inversely as his density. It would have moved to pity An Ogre or a Hessian, To see poor Spermaceti Thus suffering compression. The while he lay a-roaring In agonies gigantic, The lamp-oil out came pouring, And greased the wide Atlantic. (Would we'd been in the Navy, And cruising there! Imagine us All in a sea of gravy, With billow oleaginous!) At length old million-pounder, Low on a bed of coral, Gave his last dying flounder, Whereto I pen this moral. O, let this tale dramatic, Anent the whale Norwegian And pressure hydrostatic, Warn you, my young collegian, That down-compelling forces Increase as you get deeper; The lower down your course is, The upward path's the steeper. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON THE DEATH OF MRS. (NOW LADY) THROCKMORTON'S BULLFINCH by WILLIAM COWPER SIXTY-EIGHTH BIRTHDAY by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL THE WORD OF SUMMER by ELSA BARKER CORRESPONDENCES by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE THE LAST MAN: KISSES by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |