A WHALE of great porosity And small specific gravity, Dived down with much velocity Beneath the sea's concavity. But soon the weight of water Squeezed in his fat immensity, Which varied -- as it ought to -- Inversely as his density. It would have moved to pity An Ogre or a Hessian, To see poor Spermaceti Thus suffering compression. The while he lay a-roaring In agonies gigantic, The lamp-oil out came pouring, And greased the wide Atlantic. (Would we'd been in the Navy, And cruising there! Imagine us All in a sea of gravy, With billow oleaginous!) At length old million-pounder, Low on a bed of coral, Gave his last dying flounder, Whereto I pen this moral. O, let this tale dramatic, Anent the whale Norwegian And pressure hydrostatic, Warn you, my young collegian, That down-compelling forces Increase as you get deeper; The lower down your course is, The upward path's the steeper. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE INVITATION (TO TOM HUGHES) by CHARLES KINGSLEY DARBY AND JOAN by FREDERIC EDWARD WEATHERLY NO SONGS IN WINTER by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH JUNGLE by RICHMOND GEORGE ANTHONY AN EVENING PRAYER by BERNARD BARTON LIFE OR DEATH by EDMUND BOLTON |