Sometimes, when dawn breaks cold and grim Where billows moan o'er seamen's graves, There loom up on the horizon's brim Huge sails and cobweb cordage dim, And @3she@1 comes travelling through the waves. Turret and porthole, mast and spar, Over the sea they rise and dip, Whilst fade the moon and the morning star, And oh, but bodiless souls they are Who man the decks of the Phantom Ship. Far out across the untraversed seas, And shoreward where the slumbering tide Ebbs through the roots of tropic trees, Or flows in the light that cities at ease Cast from their banquet-chambers wide, And through tossed ice and spear-sharp sleet For evermore the ship must go: Her decks record no sound of feet; Only for aye the waters beat Upon her prow, now loud, now low. Once 'twas a prayer with mariners:— 'Blind be our eyne to yon great boat! Seek not to know what cargo's hers, Though it be ebony, silver, furs!' —Once 'twas a prayer with men afloat,— 'Guess not the riddle that lurks therein,— Whether her folks were gluttonous, Whether they died strange gold to win! Know 'tis the ghost of an ancient sin Round the pure seas pursuing us!' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE OCTOROON by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON IN A LECTURE-ROOM by ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH ENTERS INTO HEAVEN by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY THE PIAZZA OF ST. MARK AT MIDNIGHT by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH TO THE FONT-GEORGES by THEODORE FAULLAIN DE BANVILLE |