Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO THE IMMORTAL MEMORY OF THE HALIBUT ON WHICH I DINED, by WILLIAM COWPER



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO THE IMMORTAL MEMORY OF THE HALIBUT ON WHICH I DINED, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Where hast thou floated, in what seas pursued
Last Line: To feed a bard, and to be praised in verse.
Subject(s): Halibut; Sea; Ocean


WHERE hast thou floated, in what seas pursued
Thy pastime? when wast thou an egg new-spawned,
Lost in th' immensity of ocean's waste?
Roar as they might, the overbearing winds
That rocked the deep, thy cradle, thou wast safe--
And in thy minikin and embryo state,
Attached to the firm leaf of some salt weed,
Didst outlive tempests, such as wrung and racked
The joints of many a stout and gallant bark,
And whelmed them in the unexplored abyss,
Indebted to no magnet and no chart,
Nor under guidance of the polar fire,
Thou wast a voyager on many coasts,
Grazing at large in meadows submarine,
Where flat Batavia just emerging peeps
Above the brine,--where Caledonia's rocks
Beat back the surge,--and where Hibernia shoots
Her wondrous causeway far into the main.
--Wherever thou hast fed, thou little thought'st.
And I not more, that I should feed on thee.
Peace therefore, and good health, and much good fish,
To him who sent thee! and success, as oft
As it descends into the billowy gulf,
To the same drag that caught thee!--Fare thee well!
Thy lot thy brethren of the slimy fin
Would envy, could they know that thou wast doomed
To feed a bard, and to be praised in verse.





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