let Melville say it for you:
The Maldive Shark
About the shark, phlegmatical one,
Pale sot of the Maldive sea,
The sleek little pilot-fish, azure and slim,
How alert in attendance be.
From his saw-pit of mouth, from his charnel of maw
They have nothing to harm to dread,
But liquidly glide on his ghastly flank
Or before in Gorgonian head;
Or lurk in the port of serrated teeth
In white triple tiers of glittering gates,
And there find a haven when peril's abroad,
An asylum in jaws of the Fates!
They are friends; and friendly they guide him to prey,
Yet never partake of the treat--
Eyes and brains to the dotard lethargic and dull,
pale ravener of horrible meat.
And, incidentally, I really don't have anything nice to say. This poem is so much better and more interesting than any of the negative bullshit I might otherwise spew on your well-intentioned and unassuming readerly brains. Discuss.
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1 comment:
I had to look up dotard and found that it is a person in her dotage or state of mental decay. Shivers. Such a good passage.
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