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A SECRET OF THE SEA, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Down at the bottom of the sea
Last Line: And the deep sea give up its dead!
Subject(s): Death; Disasters; Drowning; Shipwrecks; Dead, The


Down at the bottom of the sea
The huge old galleon lies asleep;
Red seaweeds cloak her heavily,
Green seaweeds round her droop and sweep.

Scarce any light descends to show
Her decks made black with ancient blood,
Or the few bones that dimly glow
Where her stout captain last withstood

The drunken shock of his wild crew
Who welcomed freedom in his fall
With laughter, cursing, tears, and who
Met with such shipwreck after all!

'Tis years since the faint noontide beam,
That filters to the chart-room floor,
Last rested where, as in a dream,
The drowned chief mutineer would pore

With orbits void and bony hands
Upon the chart which, day by day,
Into new shapes of seas and lands
The exploring sea-worms fret and fray;—

Years since that semblance of a man,
That relic of unknown despair,
That symbol of past crime, began
Obscurely to be no more there!

For centuries now the ship hath lain
As drown'd forgotten ships do lie,
Unknown, alone, save for some train
Of shy small fishes starting by,

And so she still must lie until
A dying sun is burning red,
And earthquakes all earth's caverns thrill,
And the deep sea give up its dead!





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