Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON THE DEATH OF MY DEAR BROTHER, MR. H.S., DROWNED: THE BOAT, by WILLIAM HAMMOND



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON THE DEATH OF MY DEAR BROTHER, MR. H.S., DROWNED: THE BOAT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: How well the brittle boat doth personate
Last Line: Weigh'd up to bliss.
Subject(s): Boats; Sandys, Henry


How well the brittle boat doth personate
Man's frail estate!
whose concave, fill'd with lightsome air, did scorn
The prodest storm.
Man's fleshy boat bears up; whilst breath doth last,
He fears no blast.
Poor floating bark, whilst on yon mount you stood,
Rain was your food:
Now the same moisture, which once made thee grow,
Doth thee o'erflow.
Rash youth hath too much sail; his giddy path
No ballast hath;
He thinks his keel of wit can cut all waves,
And pass those graves;
Can shoot all cataracts, and safely steer
The fourscorth year.
But stoop thine ear, ill-counsell'd youth, and hark,
Look on this bark.
His emblem, whom it carried, both defied
Storms, yet soon died;
Only this difference, that sunk downward, this
Weigh'd up to bliss.





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