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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
OLD SHIPS, by LOUIS GINSBERG
First Line: Beside dim wharves, the battered ships are dreaming
Last Line: They fall to dreaming of the days long past!
Subject(s): Ships & Shipping
First Line: Beside dim wharves, the battered ships are dreaming
Last Line: They fall to dreaming of the days long past!
Subject(s): Ships & Shipping
Beside dim wharves, the battered ships are dreaming, --
The worn ships, the torn ships, with many a draggled mast.
The gray old ships are musing of those creaming
Waters that weltered in the days long past!
Maybe they dream of how the idle ocean,
A glittering Dragon, with rippling scales of gold,
Would writhe and twist with sleepy crafty motion,
Suddenly frothing where the hushed bark rolled.
How still they sway and think upon the glories
Of shimmering lagoons that lit the tranquil morn!
How soft they sigh, remembering the stories
Of Africa, Bermuda, and the far Cape Horn!
By what fierce tempests were they hurled and harried?
Or did they groan on any foamy shoal?
And what strange freight or cargoes have they carried?
Bulging green bananas or the bins of coal?
But now they creak and startle from their napping, --
These worn old ships, with many a draggled mast;
And while they listen to the waves lip-lapping,
They fall to dreaming of the days long past!
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
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ULTRAISTA ONEIRIC by ANSELM HOLLO
THE NORTH SHIP by PHILIP LARKIN
GOOD SHIPS by JOHN CROWE RANSOM
A CITY STREET IN SUMMER by LOUIS GINSBERG