THE spirits of the mighty sea, To-night are waken'd from their dreams, And upward to the tempest flee, Baring their foreheads where the gleams Of lightning run, and thunders cry, Rushing and raining through the sky! The spirits of the sea are waging Loud war upon the peaceful night, And bands of the black winds are raging Through the tempest blue and bright; Blowing her cloudy hair to dust With kisses, like a madman's lust! What ghost now, like an Ate, walketh Earth -- ocean -- air? and aye with time, Mingled, as with a lover talketh? Methinks their colloquy sublime Draws anger from the sky, which raves Over the self-abandon'd waves! Behold! like millions mass'd in battle, The trembling billows headlong go, Lashing the barren deeps, which rattle In mighty transport till they grow All fruitful in their rocky home, And burst from phrensy into foam. And look! where on the faithless billows Lie women, and men, and children fair; Some hanging, like sleep, to their swollen pillows, With helpless sinews and streaming hair, And some who plunge in the yawning graves! Ah! lives there no strength beyond the waves? 'Tis said, the moon can rock the sea From phrensy strange to silence mild -- To sleep -- to death: -- But where is @3she@1, While now her storm-born giant child Upheaves his shoulder to the skies? Arise, sweet planet pale -- arise! She cometh -- lovelier than the dawn In summer, when the leaves are green -- More graceful than the alarmed fawn, Over his grassy supper seen: Bright quiet from her beauty falls, Until -- again the tempest calls! The supernatural storm -- he waketh Again, and lo! from sheets all white, Stands up unto the stars, and shaketh Scorn on the jewell'd locks of night. He carries a ship on his foaming crown, And a cry, like hell, as he rushes down! And so still soars from calm to storm, The stature of the unresting sea: So doth desire or wrath deform Our else calm humanity -- Until at last we sleep, And never wake nor weep, (Hush'd to death by some faint tune,) In our grave beneath the moon! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHAMBER MUSIC: 11 by JAMES JOYCE IN THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE AT NEWPORT by EMMA LAZARUS THE PILGRIM [SONG], FR. THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS by JOHN BUNYAN MY GARDEN by RALPH WALDO EMERSON PHILOMELA: PHILOMELA'S ODE [THAT SHE SANG IN HER ARBOR] by ROBERT GREENE LEXINGTON; 1775 by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER |