There feasted on these heights wild earth-hued folk, Scoffing I know, and jesting in the sun. "A whale, a mighty, a prodigious one Approaches!" mockers cried. Out of thin smoke, Far, arching high into the sky there broke Strange rotund shapes of Spanish sails, gray . . . dun, The @3San Antonio@1, Christ's galleon, Now raised Point Loma, now Guijarros woke. What fear! The black sun hung within a veil; The headland rocked, and those Coahuillas felt Vague dread, the while crazed seabirds' rising wail Made savage laughter into terror melt. The ship of God heaved to; prayer like a gale Swept down La Playa where awed Indians knelt. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 110. THE OASIS OF SIDI KHALED by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT THE MILKMAID'S SONG by SYDNEY THOMPSON DOBELL FAST ANCHOR'D ETERNAL O LOVE! by WALT WHITMAN WRITTEN IN MARCH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH FANCY AND IMAGINATION by BERNARD BARTON IN YOUR ABSENCE by ELIZABETH BAXTER |