After The Sea-ship

Walt Whitman

   AFTER the Sea-Ship--after the whistling winds;
   After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes,
   Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks,
   Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship:
   Waves of the ocean, bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying,
   Waves, undulating waves--liquid, uneven, emulous waves,
   Toward that whirling current, laughing and buoyant, with curves,
   Where the great Vessel, sailing and tacking, displaced the surface;
   Larger and smaller waves, in the spread of the ocean, yearnfully
         flowing;
   The wake of the Sea-Ship, after she passes--flashing and frolicsome,
         under the sun,                                               10
   A motley procession, with many a fleck of foam, and many fragments,
   Following the stately and rapid Ship--in the wake following.

Index + Blog :

Poetry Archive Index | Blog : Poem of the Day