No.53

After the Sea-Ship

 Walt Whitman 1819-92

After the Sea-Ship - after the whistling winds;  

After the white-grey 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,   

A motley procession, with many a fleck of foam, and many fragments,  

Following the stately and rapid Ship - in the wake following.

-o0o-