The Aeolian Harp
_At The Surf Inn_
List the harp in window wailing
Stirred by fitful gales from sea:
Shrieking up in mad crescendo--
Dying down in plaintive key!
Listen: less a strain ideal
Than Ariel's rendering of the Real.
What that Real is, let hint
A picture stamped in memory's mint.
Braced well up, with beams aslant,
Betwixt the continents sails the _Phocion,_
For Baltimore bound from Alicant.
Blue breezy skies white fleeces fleck
Over the chill blue white-capped ocean:
From yard-arm comes--'Wreck ho, a
wreck!'
Dismasted and adrift,
Longtime a thing forsaken;
Overwashed by every wave
Like the slumbering kraken;
Heedless if the billow roar,
Oblivious of the lull,
Leagues and leagues from shoal or shore,
It swims--a levelled hull:
Bulwarks gone--a shaven wreck,
Nameless and a grass-green deck.
A lumberman: perchance, in hold
Prostrate pines with hemlocks rolled.
It has drifted, waterlogged,
Till by trailing weeds beclogged:
Drifted, drifted, day by day,
Pilotless on pathless way.
It has drifted till each plank
Is oozy as the oyster-bank:
Drifted, drifted, night by night,
Craft that never shows a light;
Nor ever, to prevent worse knell,
Tolls in fog the warning bell.
From collision never shrinking,
Drive what may through darksome smother;
Saturate, but never sinking,
Fatal only to the _other!_
Deadlier than the sunken reef
Since still the snare it shifteth,
Torpid in dumb ambuscade
Waylayingly it drifteth.
O, the sailors--O, the sails!
O, the lost crews never heard of!
Well the harp of Ariel wails
Thought that tongue can tell no word of!
poem by Herman Melville
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Related quotes
The Light on the Wreck
Out there by the rocks, at the end of the bank,
In the mouth of the river, the Wanderer sank.
She is resting where meet the blue water and green,
And only her masts and her funnel are seen;
And you see, when is fading the sunset’s last fleck,
On her foremast a lantern—a light on a wreck.
’Tis a light on a wreck, warning ships to beware
Of the drowned iron hull of the Wanderer there;
And the ships that come in and go out in the night
Keep a careful lookout for the Wanderer’s light.
There are rules for the harbour and rules for the wave;
But all captains steer clear of the Wanderer’s grave.
And the stories of strong lives that ended in wrecks
Might be likened to lights over derelict decks;
Like the light where, in sight of the streets of the town,
In the mouth of the channel the Wanderer went down.
Keep a watch from the desk, as they watch from the deck;
Keep a watch from your home for the light on the wreck.
But the lights on the wrecks since creation began
Have been shining in vain for the vagabond clan.
They will never take warning, they will not beware,
For they hold for their mottoes ‘What matter?’ ‘What care?’
And they sail without compass, they sail without check,
Till they steer to their grave ’neath a light on a wreck.
poem by Henry Lawson
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Driff me off
yield with full of awesome memory,
languish in the option of time, of where I
settle my complete hope of surrender to
the wave of the sky, I command to lie
down my hand
put off the flower that floats and come
to the magic of the stream, the waiting is
gone as the captive dream cease no one
in the sun
pour out all the water spells, the drifted
echo, lives in the air, listen my blooming
dear your escape is only in dream, for
your sweet touch may be gone; as the
water goes through the stream and the
wind may come the same, the pain may
always live to win
go crystal water, as the drifted sky comes
to end and let the passing tears leaves in
the air.......
poem by Antonio Liao
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The Skater
My glad feet shod with the glittering steel
I was the god of the wingèd heel.
The hills in the far white sky were lost;
The world lay still in the wide white frost;
And the woods hung hushed in their long white dream
By the ghostly, glimmering, ice-blue stream.
Here was a pathway, smooth like glass,
Where I and the wandering wind might pass
To the far-off palaces, drifted deep,
Where Winter's retinue rests in sleep.
I followed the lure, I fled like a bird,
Till the startled hollows awoke and heard
A spinning whisper, a sibilant twang,
As the stroke of the steel on the tense ice rang;
And the wandering wind was left behind
As faster, faster I followed my mind;
Till the blood sang high in my eager brain,
And the joy of my flight was almost pain.
The I stayed the rush of my eager speed
And silently went as a drifting seed, --
Slowly, furtively, till my eyes
Grew big with the awe of a dim surmise,
And the hair of my neck began to creep
At hearing the wilderness talk in sleep.
Shapes in the fir-gloom drifted near.
In the deep of my heart I heard my fear.
And I turned and fled, like a soul pursued,
From the white, inviolate solitude.
poem by Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts
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You Dont Anymore
(toby keith/eric silver)
We stood at the altar, repeating our vows for life
For better or worse, forever a husband and wife
Loves not always easy and dreams dont all come true
Whyd you lose your faith in me, I never gave up on you
When I said I do, I did, and the words were truly spoken
I gave you my heart to hold thinkin it would go unbroken
You drifted so far you cant see the stars that we wished upon before
When I said I do, I did, but you dont anymore
These days nobody seems to try
To love through the hard times instead of just saying goodbye
We built this world around us, together hand in hand
And even if you walk away, it wont change where I stand
When I said I do, I did, and the words were truly spoken
I gave you my heart to hold thinkin it would go unbroken
You drifted so far you cant see the stars that we wished upon before
When I said I do, I did, but you dont anymore
You drifted so far you cant see the stars that we wished upon before
When I said I do, I did, but you dont anymore
song performed by by Toby Keith
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Captain Smith
My heart is sinking fast just like the titanic
My heart is pumping blood thats turning blue
Well, I just want this cruise and I just cant imagine
Im drowning and its all because of you
Just as cold as ice ripped into my bough
Drifted off in moonlight while my ship was goin down
This cruise alone might be my last
And I cant even fathom
Why you left me alone to drown
My heart is sinking fast just like the titanic
Captain would you please go warn the crew
Well, everything is built to last, but it dont last forever
Im sorry but the end is coming soon
Just as cold as ice ripped into my bough
Drifted off in moonlight while my ship was goin down
This cruise alone might be my last
And I cant even fathom
Why you left me alone to drown
Just as cold as ice ripped into my bough
Drifted off in moonlight while my ship was goin down
This cruise alone might be my last
And I cant even fathom
Why you left me all alone to drown
Why you left me all alone to drown.
song performed by by Whiskeytown
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Captain Smith
My heart is sinking fast just like the titanic
My heart is pumping blood thats turning blue
Well, I just want this cruise and I just cant imagine
Im drowning and its all because of you
Just as cold as ice ripped into my bough
Drifted off in moonlight while my ship was goin down
This cruise alone might be my last
And I cant even fathom
Why you left me alone to drown
My heart is sinking fast just like the titanic
Captain would you please go warn the crew
Well, everything is built to last, but it dont last forever
Im sorry but the end is coming soon
Just as cold as ice ripped into my bough
Drifted off in moonlight while my ship was goin down
This cruise alone might be my last
And I cant even fathom
Why you left me alone to drown
Just as cold as ice ripped into my bough
Drifted off in moonlight while my ship was goin down
This cruise alone might be my last
And I cant even fathom
Why you left me all alone to drown
Why you left me all alone to drown.
song performed by by Whiskeytown
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Winter Visit
Out of the darkness they drifted down
like white feathers from a pillow fight.
Silent flakes in the night
to land and make everything white.
17 September 2010
poem by David Harris
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A Little Peace
As I was walking slowly by
a church on Sunday morn
I could hear voices raised
in praise for the lord above.
The voices were sweet and soft,
but loud enough for the lord to hear,
as the praises they were singing
drifted through the air.
Not a single voice
was out of tune
as they sang out there.
When the voices went quiet,
a serine silence drifted down
over everything and everyone around.
God was answering their prayers
for a little peace everywhere today.
23 June 2007
poem by David Harris
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Sands Of Time
Written by danny kirwan.
The magic of a blackened night
Can go so far, but not seem right
Although my love, will drive away the sunshine
The magic of, a blackened night
And before you go show me
All the words of love
And the falling sands of time
Blow my wind and drifted by
To and frow the trees still bend
Wondering what the host will send
We will go right down to the sea
Bathing in light we will be free to wander
And the falling sands of time
Blow my wind and drifted by
To and frow the trees still bend
Wondering what the host will send
We will go right down to the sea
Bathing in light we will be free to wander
And the falling sands of time
Blow my wind and drifted by
To and frow the trees still bend
Wondering what the host will send
We will go right down to the sea
Bathing in light we will be free to wander
The magic of a blackened night
Can go so far, but not seem right
Although my love, will drive away the sunshine
The magic of, a blackened night
song performed by by Fleetwood Mac
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Rollin' And Ramblin' (The Death Of Hank Williams)
Folks in Nashville slammed the door
Said we don't want you anymore
Find your own way down the road
Pack your fiddle and your guitar
Take a train or take a car
Find someone else to keep you from the cold
Rollin' and ramblin'
Women loved him half to death
He sang with whiskey on his breath
His heart broke like a child's
Rollin' and ramblin'
The sun has set out on the trail
The hobo's drifted up the rail
He's taken his last ride
Oh, he always sang the blues
Like it was all he ever knew
He didn't sing at all that night
He was pale and as he dozed
He didn't know his time had closed
Slumped in the back seat to the right
Rollin' and ramblin'
Women loved him half to death
He sang with whiskey on his breath
His heart broke like a child's
Rollin' and ramblin'
The sun has set out on the trail
The hobo's drifted up the rail
He's taken his last ride
So they send him on night train South
Through the cities and the rural routes
Just one more place to go
Ah, the whistle sang the bluest note
Like it came from his own throat
Moanin' sad and cryin' low
Rollin' and ramblin'
Women loved him half to death
He sang with whiskey on his breath
His heart broke like a child's
Rollin' and ramblin'
The sun has set out on the trail
The hobo's drifted up the rail
He's taken his last ride
Rollin' and ramblin'
The sun has set out on the trail
The hobo's drifted up the rail
He's taken his last ride
song performed by by Emmylou Harris
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 2. The Musician's Tale; The Ballad of Carmilhan - IV.
And now along the horizon's edge
Mountains of cloud uprose,
Black as with forests underneath,
Above their sharp and jagged teeth
Were white as drifted snows.
Unseen behind them sank the sun,
But flushed each snowy peak
A little while with rosy light
That faded slowly from the sight
As blushes from the cheek.
Black grew the sky,--all black, all black;
The clouds were everywhere;
There was a feeling of suspense
In nature, a mysterious sense
Of terror in the air.
And all on board the Valdemar
Was still as still could be;
Save when the dismal ship-bell tolled,
As ever and anon she rolled,
And lurched into the sea.
The captain up and down the deck
Went striding to and fro;
Now watched the compass at the wheel,
Now lifted up his hand to feel
Which way the wind might blow.
And now he looked up at the sails,
And now upon the deep;
In every fibre of his frame
He felt the storm before it came,
He had no thought of sleep.
Eight bells! and suddenly abaft,
With a great rush of rain,
Making the ocean white with spume,
In darkness like the day of doom,
On came the hurricane.
The lightning flashed from cloud to cloud,
And rent the sky in two;
A jagged flame, a single jet
Of white fire, like a bayonet_
That pierced the eyeballs through.
Then all around was dark again,
And blacker than before;
But in that single flash of light
He had beheld a fearful sight,
And thought of the oath he swore.
For right ahead lay the Ship of the Dead,
The ghostly Carmilhan!
Her masts were stripped, her yards were bare,
And on her bowsprit, poised in air,
Sat the Klaboterman.
Her crew of ghosts was all on deck
Or clambering up the shrouds;
The boatswain's whistle, the captain's hail,
Were like the piping of the gale,
And thunder in the clouds.
And close behind the Carmilhan
There rose up from the sea,
As from a foundered ship of stone,
Three bare and splintered masts alone:
They were the Chimneys Three.
And onward dashed the Valdemar
And leaped into the dark;
A denser mist, a colder blast,
A little shudder, and she had passed
Right through the Phantom Bark.
She cleft in twain the shadowy hulk,
But cleft it unaware;
As when, careering to her nest,
The sea-gull severs with her breast
The unresisting air.
Again the lightning flashed; again
They saw the Carmilhan,
Whole as before in hull and spar;
But now on board of the Valdemar
Stood the Klaboterman.
And they all knew their doom was sealed;
They knew that death was near;
Some prayed who never prayed before,
And some they wept, and some they swore,
And some were mute with fear.
Then suddenly there came a shock,
And louder than wind or sea
A cry burst from the crew on deck,
As she dashed and crashed, a hopeless wreck,
Upon the Chimneys Three.
The storm and night were passed, the light
To streak the east began;
The cabin-boy, picked up at sea,
Survived the wreck, and only he,
To tell of the Carmilhan.
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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The Wreck of the Hesperus
It was the schooner Hesperus,
That sailed the wint'ry sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company.
Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax,
Her cheeks like the dawn of day,
And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds
That ope in the month of May.
The skipper he stood beside the helm,
His pipe was in his mouth,
And watched how the veering flaw did blow
The smoke now West, now South.
Then up and spake an old Sailor,
Had sailed the Spanish Main,
"I pray thee put into yonder port,
For I fear a hurricane.
"Last night, the moon had a golden ring,
And tonight no moon we see!"
The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe,
And a scornful laugh laughed he.
Colder and louder blew the wind,
A gale from the North-east;
The snow fell hissing in the brine,
And the billows frothed like yeast.
Down came the storm, and smote amain
The vessel in its strength;
She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,
Then leaped her cable's length.
"Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,
And do not tremble so;
For I can weather the roughest gale
That ever wind did blow."
He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat
Against the stinging blast;
He cut a rope from a broken spar,
And bound her to the mast.
"O father! I hear the church-bells ring,
O say what may it be?"
"'Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!"
And he steered for the open sea.
"O father! I hear the sound of guns,
O say what may it be?"
"Some ship in distress, that cannot live
In such an angry sea!"
"O father! I see a gleaming light,
O say what may it be?"
But the father answered never a word,
A frozen corpse was he.
Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,
With his face turned to the skies,
The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow
On his fixed and glassy eyes.
Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed
That saved she might be;
And she thought of Christ who stilled the wave
On the Lake of Galilee.
And fast through the midnight dark and drear,
Through the whistling sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept
Towards the reef of Norman's Woe.
And ever the fitful gusts between
A sound came from the land;
It was the sound of the trampling surf,
On the rocks and the hard sea-sand.
The breakers were right beneath her bows,
She drifted a dreary wreck,
And a whooping billow swept the crew
Like icicles from her deck.
She struck where the white and fleecy waves
Looked soft as carded wool,
But the cruel rocks, they gored her sides
Like the horns of an angry bull.
Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,
With the masts went by the board;
Like a vessel of glass she stove and sank,
Ho! ho! the breakers roared!
At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
A fisherman stood aghast,
To see the form of a maiden fair
Lashed close to a drifting mast.
The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
The salt tears in her eyes;
And he saw her hair, like the brown seaweed,
On the billows fall and rise.
Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this
On the reef of Norman's Woe!
poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Rollin & Ramblin
(robin williams/linda williams/jerome clark)
Folks in nashville slammed the door
Said we dont want you anymore
Find your own way down the road
Pack your fiddle and your guitar
Take a train or take a car
Find someone else to keep you from the cold
Rollin and ramblin
Women loved him half to death
He sang with whiskey on his breath
His heart broke like a childs
Rollin and ramblin
The sun has set out on the trail
The hobos drifted up the rail
Hes taken his last ride
Oh, he always sang the blues
Like it was all he ever knew
He didnt sing at all that night
He was pale and as he dozed
He didnt know his time had closed
Slumped in the back seat to the right
Rollin and ramblin
Women loved him half to death
He sang with whiskey on his breath
His heart broke like a childs
Rollin and ramblin
The sun has set out on the trail
The hobos drifted up the rail
Hes taken his last ride
So they send him on night train south
Through the cities and the rural routes
Just one more place to go
Ah, the whistle sang the bluest note
Like it came from his own throat
Moanin sad and cryin low
Rollin and ramblin
Women loved him half to death
He sang with whiskey on his breath
His heart broke like a childs
Rollin and ramblin
The sun has set out on the trail
The hobos drifted up the rail
Hes taken his last ride
Rollin and ramblin
The sun has set out on the trail
The hobos drifted up the rail
Hes taken his last ride
song performed by by Emmylou Harris
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Fan Mail
I set my hand to writing you... it drifted off the page.
I sold my one vision for a piece of the cake... I havent ate in days.
For unspoken value, aesthetic, and charm, Id smile at you sideways,
But the lighting is wrong.
Im taking a picture, and counting the cost, while the bells in my ears keep ringing.
I set my hand to writing you... it drifted of the page.
I nearly fell, I feel like a lowlife in hell and I havent slept in days and days, days and days...
Beat on my fender through my gemini 2, play to the posters on the wall of my room.
Thought I was crazy when Id think about you... and the bells in my ears keep ringing.
And the bells in my ears keep ringing.
In my ear bells are ringing.
song performed by by Blondie
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Euryalus
UPWARD we went by fields of asphodel,
Leaving Ortygia's moat-bound walls below;
By orchards, where the wind-flowers' drifted snow
Lay lightly heaped upon the turf's light swell;
By gardens, whence upon the wayside fell
Jasmine and rose in April's overflow;
Till, winding up in Epipolae's wide brow,
We reached at last the lonely citadel.
There, on the ruined rampart climbing high,
We sat and dreamed among the browsing sheep,
Until we heard the trumpet's startled cry
Waking a clang of arms about the keep,
And seaward saw, with rapt foreboding eye,
The sails of Athens whiten on the deep.
poem by Edith Wharton
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Off Cape Colonna
Aloof they crown the foreland lone,
From aloft they loftier rise--
Fair columns, in the aureole rolled
From sunned Greek seas and skies.
They wax, sublimed to fancy's view,
A god-like group against the blue.
Over much like gods! Serene they saw
The wolf-waves board the deck,
And headlong hull of Falconer,
And many a deadlier wreck.
poem by Herman Melville
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Sugar Spun Sister (Chorlton Manchester 12 December 1986)
Her hair
Soft drifted snow
Death white
I aint going to know
Why she hates
All that she does
And she gives
It all that she's got
Until the sky turns green
The grass is several shades of blue
Every member of parliament trips on glue
Until the sky turns green
And the grass is several shades of blue
Every member of parliament trips on glue
It takes all these things and all that time
Till my sugar spun sister's happy
With this love of mine
It'll take all these things and oh much more
I've paid
For fifteen or more
But my guts
Can't take any more
My hands are stuck to my cheeks
And she knows
What this must mean
She wakes up with the sun
I think what have I done
As she gives me more than she thought she should
She wakes up with the sun
She asks me what is all the fuss?
As I gave her more than I thought I would
It takes all these things and all that time
Till my sugar spun sister's happy
With this love of mine
It'll take all these things and oh much more
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah
The candy floss girl
The sticky fingered boy
Oh that sister of mine
Yeah
song performed by by Stone Roses
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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(Song For My) Sugar Spun Sister
Her hair
Soft drifted snow
Death white
I aint going to know
Why she hates
All that she does
And she gives
It all that she's got
Until the sky turns green
The grass is several shades of blue
Every member of parliament trips on glue
Until the sky turns green
And the grass is several shades of blue
Every member of parliament trips on glue
It takes all these things and all that time
Till my sugar spun sister's happy
With this love of mine
It'll take all these things and oh much more
I've paid
For fifteen or more
But my guts
Can't take any more
My hands are stuck to my cheeks
And she knows
What this must mean
She wakes up with the sun
I think what have I done
As she gives me more than she thought she should
She wakes up with the sun
She asks me what is all the fuss?
As I gave her more than I thought I would
It takes all these things and all that time
Till my sugar spun sister's happy
With this love of mine
It'll take all these things and oh much more
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah
The candy floss girl
The sticky fingered boy
Oh that sister of mine
Yeah
song performed by by The Stone Roses from The Stone Roses
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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