Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A QUEEN IN THE SEA, by PAUL FORT



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A QUEEN IN THE SEA, by                    
First Line: With our good boats brave the tempestuous flood
Last Line: With our good boats brave the tempestuous sea.
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Sailing & Sailors; Sea; Ships & Shipping; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Queens; Seamen; Sails; Ocean


With our good boats brave the tempestuous flood.

A queen of high descent once loved a sailor rude. To India he went with greed of
gain imbued.

With our good boats brave the tempestuous flood.

With tall, black ships a King conquered the Queen's countree! Ah, bitter was the
sting! She leaped into the sea.

With our good boats brave the tempestuous flood.

"Queen in the sea!" A whale in search of cod or mullet wagged a contented tail
and stowed her in his gullet.

With our good boats brave the tempestuous flood.

In that black ventral part a sorry time she had, but still, with faithful heart,
she loved her sailor lad.

With our good boats brave the tempestuous flood.

So that good whale, the most considerate of mammals, swam to the Indian coast, a
land where there are camels.

With our good boats brave the tempestuous flood.

One of these beasts above, throned in a palanquin, she recognized her love, now
monarch of Tonkin.

With our good boats brave the tempestuous flood.

"Sailor, console your queen. Come back my throne to share." "Not I! In my hareem
are many maids more fair."

With our good boats brave the tempestuous flood.

"You smell of the sepulchre." "A whale devoured me. Sailor, 'tis not of the
sepulchre I smell, but of the sea."

With our good boats brave the tempestuous flood.

"Each houri of my string of fine rice-powder smells, like the Queen to the King
that they say in Paris dwells."

With our good boats brave the tempestuous flood.

Then weeping she returned into the waiting whale and for her native land
sorrowfully set sail.

With our good boats brave the tempestuous flood.

With tall, black ships a King conquered the Queen's countree. Her pain has lost
its sting and like a lamb is she.

With our good boats brave the tempestuous sea.





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