Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GHOST SHIP, by ROBERT NEALEY



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GHOST SHIP, by                    
First Line: I did not even then quite understand
Last Line: She quickly sailed away and soon grew dim.
Subject(s): Ghost Ships; Sailing & Sailors; Sea; Ocean


I did not even then quite understand,
How anyone could come upon the land
Out there at sea in harsh and salty swell
In lanes where storms blow direct from hell.
I looked back along our wake through the raw
Winter day, and there alone I saw
Bare towering masts above the salt foam,
All six of them set near my Yankee home;
And then I spied the letters on her stern
And knew that this forsaken ship in turn
Was built in Bath by old craftsmen from Maine,
Whose slim careful art fled through the rain.

It was imagination, perhaps not
Perhaps, it was a dream that showed her wrought,
A lonely ship that sailed without her crew,
But there she was and through the sea she flew.
Silently, yet splendidly alive,
Her bow curtsied in swift and graceful dive;
She shook out snowy sails and stepped on air,
I marvelling at anything as fair
Or trim; too fast to have been made by hands
Of mortal men. Where loneliness now stands
And vanishes beyond the seas' rim,
She quickly sailed away and soon grew dim.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net