Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, STEVEDORE, by EDGAR DANIEL KRAMER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

STEVEDORE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I watched him rolling hogsheads
Last Line: From the witching moon.
Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers


I watched him rolling hogsheads
Into a rusty boat,
A nigger in blue overalls
And a tattered coat;
I heard him sadly crooning
A strangely witching tune
Like a ghost of wailing
From beyond the moon.

In a dim black forest a host came swaying,
Tom-toms throbbing and cymbals playing;
Minstrel-men in red coats, minstrel-men in blue,
Strutting down the forest aisles in a grand review,
Singing for their great king, sitting all alone,
Smiling like a bronze god on a golden throne.

Humming by the gold throne like a swarm of bees,
The minstrel-men went swaying 'mid the trembling trees,
Then with lips of laughter and with shining eyes
Flower-girls came bringing Blooms of Paradise,
Blossoms red as rapture, blossoms passing sweet,
Blossoms that they heaped about the bronze god's feet.

Stepping to their singing of a haunting song,
Shadows shifting joyously, they too passed along,
Then the air grew heavy with the scent of musk,
As a golden dancing-girl came gleaming through the dusk;
Like a stately lily, tall and fair and slim,
Dancing to the bronze god, she bowed low to him.

In the dim black forest with dark eyes of dreaming, --
Tom-toms throbbing and cymbals screaming,
She rose like a flower and with broken breath,
Weaving through the shadows, danced the Dance of Death
For the king had wearied of the lips he had caressed,
And she held an adder to her aching breast.

He was rolling hogsheads
Into a rusty boat,
A tall, bronze god in blue jeans
And a rusty coat;
He was ever crooning
The sad soul of a tune,
A ghost of bitter wailing
From the witching moon.





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