Commemorative Of A Naval Victory
Herman Melville 1819 – 1891
Sailors there are of the gentlest breed,
Yet strong, like every goodly thing;
The discipline of arms refines,
And the wave gives tempering.
The damasked blade its beam can fling;
It lends the last grave grace:
The hawk, the hound, and sworded nobleman
In Titian's picture for a king,
Are of hunter or warrior race.
In social halls a favored guest
In years that follow victory won,
How sweet to feel your festal fame
In woman's glance instinctive thrown:
Repose is yours--your deed is known,
It musks the amber wine;
It lives, and sheds a light from storied days
Rich as October sunsets brown,
Which make the barren place to shine.
But seldom the laurel wreath is seen
Unmixed with pensive pansies dark;
There's a light and a shadow on every man
Who at last attains his lifted mark--
Nursing through night the ethereal spark.
Elate he never can be;
He feels that spirit which glad had hailed his
worth,
Sleep in oblivion.--The shark
Glides white through the phosphorus sea.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 80 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXAABCAB XCXDDEXXE XFXFFGXXFG |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 953 |
Words | 173 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 10 |
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"Commemorative Of A Naval Victory" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/19058/commemorative-of-a-naval-victory>.
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