Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LADY AT SEA, by THOMAS HOOD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LADY AT SEA, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Cables entangling her
Last Line: "good lord deliver us!'"
Subject(s): Sea; Ocean


Cables entangling her,
Shipspars for mangling her,
Ropes, sure of strangling her;
Blocks, over-dangling her;
Tiller to batter her,
Topmast to shatter her,
Tobacco to spatter her;
Boreas blustering,
Boatswain quite flustering,
Thunder-clouds mustering
To blast her with sulphur --
If the deep don't engulf her;
Sometimes fear's scrutiny
Pries out a mutiny,
Sniffs conflagration,
Or hints at starvation: --
All the sea-dangers,
Buccaneers, rangers,
Pirates and Sallee-men
Algerine galleymen,
Tornadoes and typhons,
And horrible syphons,
And submarine travels
Thro' roaring sea-navels.
Everything wrong enough,
Long-boat not long enough,
Vessel not strong enough;
Pitch marring frippery,
The deck very slippery,
And the cabin -- built sloping,
The Captain a-toping,
And the mate a blasphemer,
That names his Redeemer, --
With inward uneasiness;
The cook known, by greasiness,
The victuals beslubber'd,
Her bed -- in a cupboard;
Things of strange christening,
Snatched in her listening,
Blue lights and red lighs
And mention of dead-lights,
And shrouds made a theme of,
Things horrid to dream of, --
And buoys in the water
To fear all exhort her;
Her friend no Leander,
Herself no sea-gander,
And ne'er a cork jacket
On board of the packet;
The breeze still a-stiffening,
The trumpet quite deafening;
Thoughts of repentance,
And doomsday and sentence;
Everything sinister,
Not a church minister, --
Pilot a blunderer,
Coral reefs under her,
Ready to sunder her;
Trunks tipsy-topsy,
The ship in a dropsy;
Waves oversurging her,
Sirens, a-dirgeing her;
Sharks all expecting her,
Swordfish dissecting her,
Crabs with their hand-vices
Punishing land vices;
Sea-dogs and unicorns,
Things with no puny horns,
Mermen carnivorous --
"Good Lord deliver us!'





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