Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PHANTOM SHIP, by VICTOR GUSTAVE PLARR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PHANTOM SHIP, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sometimes, when dawn breaks cold and grim
Last Line: Round the pure seas pursuing us!'
Subject(s): Ghosts; Ships - Abandoning Of; Supernatural


Sometimes, when dawn breaks cold and grim
Where billows moan o'er seamen's graves,
There loom up on the horizon's brim
Huge sails and cobweb cordage dim,
And she comes travelling through the waves.

Turret and porthole, mast and spar,
Over the sea they rise and dip,
Whilst fade the moon and the morning star,
And oh, but bodiless souls they are
Who man the decks of the Phantom Ship.

Far out across the untraversed seas,
And shoreward where the slumbering tide
Ebbs through the roots of tropic trees,
Or flows in the light that cities at ease
Cast from their banquet-chambers wide,

And through tossed ice and spear-sharp sleet
For evermore the ship must go:
Her decks record no sound of feet;
Only for aye the waters beat
Upon her prow, now loud, now low.

Once 'twas a prayer with mariners:—
'Blind be our eyne to yon great boat!
Seek not to know what cargo's hers,
Though it be ebony, silver, furs!'
—Once 'twas a prayer with men afloat,—

'Guess not the riddle that lurks therein,—
Whether her folks were gluttonous,
Whether they died strange gold to win!
Know 'tis the ghost of an ancient sin
Round the pure seas pursuing us!'





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