Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FULL-SAILED, by JEANNETTE AUGUSTUS MARKS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FULL-SAILED, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sometimes, full-sailed like thought, a great ship
Last Line: When a great ship rides battling down to death.
Subject(s): Death; Ships & Shipping; Wellesley College; Dead, The


SOMETIMES, full-sailed like thought, a great ship
Journeying with the sun, sets out to sea.
Westward before the wind magnificently
She rides, high prow with shining spray a-drip.
Then noon, the wind slacks, as a closed lip
Is mute. No longer shrouds hold song in fee,
The canvas waits to fill, the boom hangs free,
Uncertain, swayed in weird, presageful grip.

Moaning, the wind rocks and cries for peace:
Too well it knows the outrage of its power --
Chaos of dark, chaos of hissing breath,
The prayers, the broken spar, the waves' increase,
The gaping decks swept clear, -- the final hour
When a great ship rides battling down to death.





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