When, with a wild surmise, Cortez beheld
The cold and vast Pacific, did he sense
Its cast - the white and dappled sheen that swelled
In sterling surges through Poseidon's dense
Demesne, where ship-fish leapt and wilted kelp,
Arrayed in dun designs, meandered quite
Unnervingly on bloated cores? What help
Were eagle eyes, when all about, the light
Detailed bright stripes of silver skin upon
The surface film, and mottled scales adorned
Each numbing, undulating change? Once drawn
To Darien, fatigued and unforewarned,
Perhaps all happened well; perhaps the shore
Ignored the never-silent waters' roar.
2 comments:
Something of a by-the-way tribute to Keats' famous Chapman on Homer sonnet? Reminiscent in some of the subject matter, specifically (that peak in) Darien, and Cortez.
Fascinating and delightfully poignant in rousing a hint of the awesomeness the explorers faced in sailing the seemingly(?) nigh uncharted seas in search of that promised land of sorts.
Excellent imagery evoking the arena, seems to my ignorance. Rather chilling, haunting, almost but not quite eerie.
I like it. Definitely reminds me a tad of Keats'.
Wait a minute....L9 are you placing two or three syllables in "Detailed"? Otherwise you are missing one. It tripped me up reading.
Ah! Yes, you are correct. I have a problem with words ending in -ld - I extend their syllable. Thus, child is CHI-uld, detailed is d'TAY-uld. If I had noticed, I would have added an extra syllable somewhere to fix it. Oops. I might go back and fix it since it's not quite 24 hours since I started writing it... nice catch, and thank you.
Aye, this is in reference to portions of Keats' sonnet, prompted by my own visit to the Pacific. It's cold. :)
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