The Ship Of Earth.

Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)



'Thou Ship of Earth, with Death, and Birth, and Life, and Sex aboard,
And fires of Desires burning hotly in the hold,
I fear thee, O! I fear thee, for I hear the tongue and sword
At battle on the deck, and the wild mutineers are bold!

'The dewdrop morn may fall from off the petal of the sky,
But all the deck is wet with blood and stains the crystal red.
A pilot, GOD, a pilot! for the helm is left awry,
And the best sailors in the ship lie there among the dead!'

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 06, 2023

29 sec read
399

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 466
Words 98
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 4, 4

Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier was a poet, writer, composer, critic, professor of literature at Johns Hopkins and first flutist with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Baltiimore. He wrote the Centennial cantata for the opening ceremony of the 1876 Centennial celebration in Philadelphia. more…

All Sidney Lanier poems | Sidney Lanier Books

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    "The Ship Of Earth." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/34801/the-ship-of-earth.>.

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