LISTEN, my masters! I speak naught but truth. From dawn to dawn they drifted on and on, Not knowing whither nor to what dark end. Now the North froze them, now the hot South scorched. Some called to God, and found great comfort so; Some gnashed their teeth with curses, and some laughed An empty laughter, seeing they yet lived, So sweet was breath between their foolish lips. Day after day the same relentless sun, Night after night the same unpitying stars. At intervals fierce lightnings tore the clouds, Showing vast hollow spaces, and the sleet Hissed, and the torrents of the sky were loosed. From time to time a hand relaxed its grip, And some pale wretch slid down into the dark With stifled moan, and transient horror seized The rest who waited, knowing what must be. At every turn strange shapes reached up and clutched The whirling wreck, held on awhile, and then Slipt back into that blackness whence they came. Ah, hapless folk, to be so tost and torn, So racked by hunger, fever, fire, and wave, And swept at last into the nameless void -- Frail girls, strong men, and mothers with their babes! And was none saved? My masters, not a soul! O shipman, woeful, woeful is thy tale! Our hearts are heavy and our eyes are dimmed. What ship is this that suffered such ill fate? What ship, my masters? Know ye not? -- The World! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LAST SUPPER by RAINER MARIA RILKE A FAERY SONG, SUNG BY THE PEOPLE OF FAERY OVER DIARMUID by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS ST. AGNES' MORNING by MAXWELL ANDERSON THE JEWISH MARTYRS by W. V. B. THE END OF THE SUNSET TRAIL by ALMA C. BINGHAM WRITTEN ON A BLANK LEAF OF HIS POEMS, FOR CHLORIS by ROBERT BURNS ACROSS THE INTERVALE by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON TO MY COUSIN CAREW RALEGH MARRYING MY LADY ALTHAM by THOMAS CAREW |