SNARING lights surmount the sand-dunes of the Salamander Isles; The chime buoys chant new tunes each tide, false soundings run for miles. And yet, for lures like these we set such sail as we could make; We steered by stars that sorrowed, with the moonlight in our wake. We dipped or rose supremely as we shook our free-board clear; We clung, but smiled serenely when the head seas swept our gear. We were captives of the currents, we were harried by the flaw, Or the red mists from the marshes mocked the navigator's law. Glimpsed we evanescent channels, marked by flares upon a wreck, But the channels shoaled to shallows ere the tops could hail the deck. Yet we won to realization that the ports long sought in vain, Were illusive as the May moths or the madrigals of Spain; And that only charts from China, drawn by wizards full of wiles, Would give the proper bearings for the Salamander Isles. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO A POET, WHO WOULD HAVE ME PRAISE CERTAIN BAD POETS, IMITATORS ... by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE BIRTHNIGHT: TO F by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE THE SHIPWRECK, SELECTION by WILLIAM FALCONER WHAT THE THRUSH SAID by JOHN KEATS THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 15 by OMAR KHAYYAM WIND WEAVING by FRANCES HALLEY BROCKETT |