The Child and the Marine

So, as we walked along, that seaman dropped

Into my greedy ears such words that sleep

Stood at my pillow half the night perplexed.

He told how isles sprang up and sank again,

Between short voyages, to his amaze;

How they did come and go, and cheated charts;

Told how a crew was cursed when one man killed

A bird that perched upon a moving barque;

And how the sea’s sharp needles, firm and strong,

Ripped open the bellies of big, iron ships;

Of mighty icebergs in the Northern seas,

That haunt the far horizon like white ghosts.

He told of waves that lift a ship so high

That birds could pass from starboard unto port

Under her dripping keel.

Oh, it was sweet

To hear that seaman tell such wondrous tales:

How deep the sea in parts, that drownèd men

Must go a long way to their graves and sink

Day after day, and wander with the tides.