|
|
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 | |||
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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JOURNEY INTO THE EYE by DAVID LEHMAN THE GREAT BLACK HERON by DENISE LEVERTOV ISLA MUJERES by WILLIAM MATTHEWS SCHOOLS OF LITTLE FISH by MARVIN BELL TWO PICTURES OF A LEAF by MARVIN BELL OF FISH AND FISHERMEN by JOHN CIARDI THE SINGER OF ONE SONG by HENRY AUGUSTIN BEERS |
| |