Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HAUNTED BEACH, by MARY DARBY ROBINSON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE HAUNTED BEACH, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: Upon a lonely desert beach
Subject(s): Seashore; Beach; Coast; Shore


Upon a lonely desert beach,
Where the white foam was scattered,
A little shed upreared its head,
Though lofty barks were shattered.
The sea-weeds gathering near the door,
A sombre path displayed;
And, all around, the deafening roar
Re-echoed on the chalky shore,
By the green billows made.

Above a jutting cliff was seen
Where sea-birds hovered craving;
And all around the craggs were bound
With weeds -- for ever waving.
And here and there, a cavern wide
lts shadowy jaws displayed;
And near the sands, at ebb of tide,
A shivered mast was seen to ride
Where the green billows strayed.

And often, while the moaning wind
Stole over the summer ocean,
The moonlight scene was all serene,
The waters scarce in motion;
Then, while the smoothly slanting sand
The tall cliff wrapped in shade,
The fisherman beheld a band
Of spectres gliding hand in hand --
Where the green billows played.

And pale their faces were as snow,
And sullenly they wandered;
And to the skies with hollow eyes
They looked as though they pondered.
And sometimes, from their hammock shroud,
They dismal howlings made,
And while the blast blew strong and loud,
The clear moon marked the ghastly crowd,
Where the green billows played.

And then above the haunted hut
The curlews screaming hovered;
And the low door, with furious roar,
The frothy breakers covered.
For in the fisherman's lone shed
A murdered man was laid,
With ten wide gashes in his head,
And deep was made his sandy bed
Where the green billows played.

A shipwrecked mariner was he,
Doomed from his home to sever
Who swore to be through wind and sea
Firm and undaunted ever!
And when the wave resistless rolled,
About his arm he made
A packet rich of Spanish gold,
And, like a British sailor bold,
Plunged where the billows played.

The spectre band, his messmates brave,
Sunk in the yawning ocean,
While to the mast he lashed him fast,
And braved the storm's commotion.
The winter moon upon the sand
A silvery carpet made,
And marked the sailor reach the land,
And marked his murderer wash his hand
Where the green billows played.

And since that hour the fisherman
Has toiled and toiled in vain;
For all the night the moony light
Gleams on the spectered main!
And when the skies are veiled in gloom,
The murderer's liquid way
Bounds over the deeply yawning tomb,
And flashing fires the sands illume,
Where the green billows play.

Full thirty years his task has been,
Day after day more weary;
For Heaven designed his guilty mind
Should dwell on prospects dreary.
Bound by a strong and mystic chain,
He has not power to stray;
But destined misery to sustain,
He wastes, in solitude and pain,
A loathsome life away.
.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net