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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A FISH STORY, by HENRY AUGUSTIN BEERS Poet's Biography
First Line: A whale of great porosity
Last Line: The upward path's the steeper.
Subject(s): Fish & Fishing; Anglers
First Line: A whale of great porosity
Last Line: The upward path's the steeper.
Subject(s): Fish & Fishing; Anglers
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.
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