A sinking sun, a sky of red, In bars and banners overhead, And blown apart like curtains drawn; Afar a-sea a blowing sail That shall go down before the dawn; And they are passion-toss'd and pale, The two that stand and look alone And silent, as two shafts of stone Set head and foot above the dead. They watch the ship, the weary sun, The banner'd streamers every one, Till darkness hides them in her hair. The winds come in as cold as death, And not a palm above the pair To lift a lance or break a breath. The hollow of the ocean fills Like sounding hollow halls of stone, And not a banner streams above; The sea is set in snowy hills. The ship is lost. The winds are blown Unheeded now; yet who shall say: "We had been wiser so than they Who wept and watch'd the parting sail In silence; mute with sorrow, pale With weeping for departed love"? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HURRAHING IN HARVEST by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG by ANNIE CHAMBERS KETCHUM PICTURESQUE; A FRAGMENT by JOHN AIKIN PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 2. AR-RAHMAN by EDWIN ARNOLD THE RIVAL CELESTIAL by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |