The Coral Island

James Stephens 1882 (Dublin) – 1950



His arms were round a chest of oaken wood,
  It was clamped with brass and iron studs, and seemed
An awful weight. After a while he stood
  And I stole near to him.—His white eyes gleamed
As he peeped secretly about; he laid
  The oaken chest upon the ground, then drew
A great knife from his belt, and stuck the blade
  Into the ground and dug. The clay soon flew
In all directions underneath a tree,
  And when the hole was deep he put the box
Down there, and threw the clay back cunningly,
  Stamping the ground quite flat; then like a fox
He crept among the trees.... I went next day
  To dig the treasure up, but I lost my way.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
91

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCDEFGFHH
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 629
Words 125
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

James Stephens

James Stephens was an Irish Republican and the founding member of an originally unnamed revolutionary organisation in Dublin on 17 March 1858, later to become known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood, also referred to as the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood by contemporaries. more…

All James Stephens poems | James Stephens Books

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