Page:Poems of the Great War - Cunliffe.djvu/178

 152 JOYCE KILMER

And through the leagues above her She looked, aghast, and said :

" What is this living ship that comes Where every ship is dead?"

The ghostly vessels trembled

From ruined stern to prow ; What was this thing of terror

That broke their vigil now ? Down through the startled ocean

A mighty vessel came, Not white, as all dead ships must be,

But red, like living flame !

The pale green waves about her

Were swiftly, strangely dyed. By the great scarlet stream that flowed

From out her wounded side. And all her decks were scarlet

And all her shattered crew. She sank among the white ghost ships

And stained them through and through.

The grim Titanic greeted her "And who art thou?" she said ;

" Why dost thou join our ghostly fleet Arrayed in living red ?

We are the ships of sorrow Who spend the weary night,

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