Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SEA DEAD, by J. D. MAHONEY First Line: The lone wolf's howl is a gruesome thing Last Line: "when the sea gives up its dead." Subject(s): Death; Dead, The | ||||||||
THE lone wolf's howl is a gruesome thing At night on a moonlit plain, And bleaching bones in the arctic zones When north lights wax and wane, Gleam ghastly bright in the ghostly light; Uncannier and more dread Is this hollow rhyme which the billows chime "When the sea gives up its dead." Deep, deep in the depths of the waters dark Dwells a race of grinning skulls Who went with a piercing cry in the night Deep down with their wrecked hulls, And there they bide through the endless years On the ocean's sleepless bed Trod by fleshless feet, for they tread and sing "When the sea gives up its dead." They've a kingdom there at the mountain's base, These men of the fleshless bones, And wealth that rivals the spoils of Ind Or the treasures Golconda owns. They've heaps of gold from many a hold, With the rust of years 'tis red, And its clinking ring fits the dirge they sing "When the sea gives up its dead." "When the sea gives up its dead," they sing, And the metal clinks apace As they rock and sway to the ocean's swell At the aged mountain's base, Till the eyrie things from the gloom come out And gyrate overhead, To view the sight and to hark the song "When the sea gives up its dead." The endless halls in that ocean realm Resound with the horrid strain, "The dead, the dead;" so the echo rolls In a far removed refrain, And the phosphor light from the eyrie things O'er the ghoulish crew is shed Till their reeling shadows seem to chant "When the sea gives up its dead." The lone black hours on a frozen trail Will clutch at the sternest heart, The Indian death song out of the night Will cause the brave to start; And yet withal what mind that kens The horror broadcast spread In every clime at the summons time, "When the sea gives up its dead." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY |
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