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larryhammerFor Poetry Monday:
D'Avalos' Prayer, John Masefield
When the last sea is sailed and the last shallow charted,
When the last field is reaped and the last harvest stored,
When the last fire is out and the last guest departed,
Grant the last prayer that I shall pray, Be good to me, O Lord!
And let me pass in a night at sea, a night of storm and thunder,
In the loud crying of the wind through sail and rope and spar;
Send me a ninth great peaceful wave to drown and roll me under
To the cold tunny-fishes’ home where the drowned galleons are.
And in the dim green quiet place far out of sight and hearing,
Grant I may hear at whiles the wash and thresh of the sea-foam
About the fine keen bows of the stately clippers steering
Towards the lone northern star and the fair ports of home.
Masefield is IMHO underappreciated these days, but he was tucked into the Poet Laureateship (1930-1967) for good reason. This is from his first collection, Salt-Water Ballads, which also included "Sea-Fever."
---L.
Subject quote from "When Earth's Last Picture is Painted," Rudyard Kipling, which this greatly reminded me of.
D'Avalos' Prayer, John Masefield
When the last sea is sailed and the last shallow charted,
When the last field is reaped and the last harvest stored,
When the last fire is out and the last guest departed,
Grant the last prayer that I shall pray, Be good to me, O Lord!
And let me pass in a night at sea, a night of storm and thunder,
In the loud crying of the wind through sail and rope and spar;
Send me a ninth great peaceful wave to drown and roll me under
To the cold tunny-fishes’ home where the drowned galleons are.
And in the dim green quiet place far out of sight and hearing,
Grant I may hear at whiles the wash and thresh of the sea-foam
About the fine keen bows of the stately clippers steering
Towards the lone northern star and the fair ports of home.
Masefield is IMHO underappreciated these days, but he was tucked into the Poet Laureateship (1930-1967) for good reason. This is from his first collection, Salt-Water Ballads, which also included "Sea-Fever."
---L.
Subject quote from "When Earth's Last Picture is Painted," Rudyard Kipling, which this greatly reminded me of.