At Melville’s Tomb
POEM VIEWS: 4811
Born in Garrettsville, Ohio, Hart Crane (1899-1932) left his unhappy home for New York before his last year of high school. He planned — against . . . MORE »
Born in Garrettsville, Ohio, Hart Crane (1899-1932) left his unhappy home for New York before his last year of high school. He planned — against . . . MORE »
By Hart Crane
Often beneath the wave, wide from this ledge
The dice of drowned men’s bones he saw bequeath
An embassy. Their numbers as he watched,
Beat on the dusty shore and were obscured.
And wrecks passed without sound of bells,
The calyx of death’s bounty giving back
A scattered chapter, livid hieroglyph,
The portent wound in corridors of shells.
Then in the circuit calm of one vast coil,
Its lashings charmed and malice reconciled,
Frosted eyes there were that lifted altars;
And silent answers crept across the stars.
Compass, quadrant and sextant contrive
No farther tides ... High in the azure steeps
Monody shall not wake the mariner.
This fabulous shadow only the sea keeps.