Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HEART OF OCEAN, by EDWARD NOYES POMEROY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE HEART OF OCEAN, by                    
First Line: The grove's endearments are not thine
Last Line: Heart of the moaning sea!
Subject(s): Battleships; Death; Mortality; Mourning; Sea Gulls; Dead, The; Bereavement


The grove's endearments are not thine,
Heart of the moaning sea;
The measures of the palm and pine
They murmur not for thee.

No land bird risks despair and loss
Among thy channels dim;
The sea-gull only dares to toss
On thy upheaving rim.

Thy far beginning hath no date;
Thy years no lines confess;
No shadow marks thy dial-plate
Sea-smoothed and fingerless.

Like some uncharted asteroid,
Or derelict of space,
Thou art without a form and void
And chaos is thy face.

Thy tides forever fall and swell;
Thy depths forever sleep;
Thy noises to thy silence yell—
Deep calling unto deep.

The argosies of Fancy's dream
That vanished in the west;
The argonauts thy cheating stream
Lured to her siren breast—

The sanguine story of their woe
In mortal anguish traced
Oblivion's finger long ago
Insensibly effaced.

The pirate craft and privateer
In slaughter's net entoiled;
The merchantmen they grappled here
And ruthlessly despoiled;

The battleship that gained at last
A requiem's renown;
That nailed her country's colors fast
And thundering went down:—

All now "have suffered a sea change"
And in thy silence lie,
With the creations old and strange
That never breathe nor die.

The tumbled hulks that chaos mock
No diver will reveal;
The treasure, guarded by no lock,
No cunning thief will steal.

Around, the caverns dark and deep
Where phantom seamen roam;
Above, the wastes where tempests reap
The harvests of the foam.

Earth has no mystery like thine;
No line can fathom thee;
What art thou? Demon or divine?
Heart of the moaning sea!





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