“alsant with trim tackle and shrouding,/From the proud nostril curve of a prow’s line/In the offing”

For Poetryspam Monday:


Wings in the Dark, John Gray

Forth into the warm darkness faring wide —
More silent momently the silent quay —
Towards where the ranks of boats rock to the tide,
Muffling their plaintive gurgling jealously.

With gentle nodding of her gracious snout,
One greets her master till he step aboard:
She flaps her wings impatient to get out;
She runs to plunder, staining every cord.

Full-winged and stealthy like a bird of prey,
All tense the muscles of her seemly flanks;
She, the coy creature that the idle day
Sees idly riding in the idle ranks.

Backward and forth, over the chosen ground,
Like a young horse, she drags the heavy trawl
Content; or speeds her rapturous course unbound,
And passing fishers through the darkness call,

Deep greeting, in the jargon of the sea.
Haul upon haul, flounders and soles and dabs,
And phosphorescent animalculae,
Sand, sea drift, weeds, thousands of worthless crabs.

Darkling upon the mud the fishes grope,
Cautious to stir, staring with jewel eyes;
Dogs of the sea, the savage congers mope,
Winding their sulky march meander-wise.

Suddenly all is light and life and flight,
Upon the sandy bottom, agate strewn.
The fishers mumble, waiting till the night
Urge on the clouds, and cover up the moon.


Gray was an aesthetic poet and translator. He was quite good-looking and members of Wilde's set suggested he was the inspiration for Dorian Gray, although their relationship didn't start till Wilde had all but completed the novel. After Wilde's trial and imprisonment for homosexuality, Gray became a Catholic priest and his writings turned devotional. This is from his first collection, which included several translations from Verlaine, Rimbaud, and Baudelaire.

(Am I the only one to think Thousands of Worthless Crabs would be an excellent name for a shoegaze/dream pop band?)

---L.

Subject quote from “A Passer-By,” Robert Bridges.