Down at the bottom of the sea The huge old galleon lies asleep; Red seaweeds cloak her heavily, Green seaweeds round her droop and sweep. Scarce any light descends to show Her decks made black with ancient blood, Or the few bones that dimly glow Where her stout captain last withstood The drunken shock of his wild crew Who welcomed freedom in his fall With laughter, cursing, tears, and who Met with such shipwreck after all! 'Tis years since the faint noontide beam, That filters to the chart-room floor, Last rested where, as in a dream, The drowned chief mutineer would pore With orbits void and bony hands Upon the chart which, day by day, Into new shapes of seas and lands The exploring sea-worms fret and fray;— Years since that semblance of a man, That relic of unknown despair, That symbol of past crime, began Obscurely to be no more there! For centuries now the ship hath lain As drown'd forgotten ships do lie, Unknown, alone, save for some train Of shy small fishes starting by, And so she still must lie until A dying sun is burning red, And earthquakes all earth's caverns thrill, And the deep sea give up its dead! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MY PICTURE-GALLERY by WALT WHITMAN THE INCENSE BURNER by ABUS SALT EPISTLES ON THE CHARACTER AND CONDITION OF WOMEN: 1 by LUCY AIKEN LAURENCE BLOOMFIELD IN IRELAND: 1. LORD CRASHTON by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM THE JACKDAW OF RHEIMS by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM EGYPTIAN THEOSOPHY by MATHILDE BLIND |