The Poetry Corner

Storm At Annisquam

By Madison Julius Cawein

The sun sinks scarlet as a barberry. Far off at sea one vessel lifts a sail, Hurrying to harbor from the coming gale, That banks the west above a choppy sea. The sun is gone; the fide is flowing free; The bay is opaled with wild light; and pale The lighthouse spears its flame now; through a veil That falls about the sea mysteriously. Out there she sits and mutters of her dead, Old Ocean; of the stalwart and the strong, Skipper and fisher whom her arms dragged down: Before her now she sees their ghosts; o'erhead As gray as rain, their wild wrecks sweep along, And all night long lay siege to this old town.