And reports the derelict Mary Pollock still at sea.
SHIPPING NEWS.
I was the staunchest of our fleet
Till the sea rose beneath our feet
Unheralded, in hatred past all measure.
Into his pits he stamped my crew,
Buffeted, blinded, bound and threw,
Bidding me eyeless wait upon his pleasure.
Man made me, and my will
Is to my maker still,
Whom now the currents con, the rollers steer —
Lifting forlorn to spy
Trailed smoke along the sky,
Falling afraid lest any keel come near!
Wrenched as the lips of thirst,
Wried, dried, and split and burst,
Bone-bleached my decks, wind-scoured to the graining;
And jarred at every roll
The gear that was my soul
Answers the anguish of my beams’ complaining.
For life that crammed me full,
Gangs of the prying gull
That shriek and scrabble on the riven hatches!
For roar that dumbed the gale,
My hawse-pipes guttering wail,
Sobbing my heart out through the uncounted watches!
Blind in the hot blue ring
Through all my points I swing —
Swing and return to shift the sun anew.
Blind in my well-known sky
I hear the stars go by,
Mocking the prow that cannot hold one true!
White on my wasted path
Wave after wave in wrath
Frets ‘gainst his fellow, warring where to send me.
Flung forward, heaved aside,
Witless and dazed I bide
The mercy of the comber that shall end me.
North where the bergs careen,
The spray of seas unseen
Smokes round my head and freezes in the falling;
South where the corals breed,
The footless, floating weed
Folds me and fouls me, strake on strake upcrawling.
I that was clean to run
My race against the sun —
Strength on the deep, am bawd to all disaster —
Whipped forth by night to meet
My sister’s careless feet,
And with a kiss betray her to my master!
Man made me, and my will
Is to my maker still —
To him and his, our peoples at their pier:
Lifting in hope to spy
Trailed smoke along the sky,
Falling afraid lest any keel come near!
(Rudyard Kipling)
More Poetry from Rudyard Kipling:
Rudyard Kipling Poems based on Topics: Man, Sadness, Anger, Hatred, Hope, Pleasure, Kiss, Forgiveness, Media & News, Complaints- Zion (Rudyard Kipling Poem)
- The Winners (Rudyard Kipling Poem)
- The Wishing-Caps (Rudyard Kipling Poem)
- With Scindia to Delphi (Rudyard Kipling Poem)
- You Must n't Swim... (Rudyard Kipling Poems)
- The Young British Soldier (Rudyard Kipling Poem)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Man Poems, Sadness Poems, Hope Poems, Anger Poems, Pleasure Poems, Kiss Poems, Forgiveness Poems, Hatred Poems, Media & News Poems, Complaints PoemsBased on Keywords: warring, dazed, weed, gull, riven, con, currents, prow, well-known, keel, sobbing
- Threnodia Augustalis: Overture - Pastorale (Oliver Goldsmith Poems)
- The Song Of Hiawatha XV: Hiawatha's Lamentation (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems)
- The Progress Of Patriotism (Nicholas Amhurst Poems)
- Jerusalem Delivered - Book 02 - part 06 (Torquato Tasso Poems)
- The Nation's Loss (Jacob Rhodes Poems)