Dromo's Den

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Herman Melville Image

Herman Melville

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 of harm to dread,

But liquidly glide on his ghastly flank

Or before his 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.

Herman Melville, John Marr, and other Poems (Princeton:

Princeton University Press; London: Humphrey Milfird,

Oxford University Press, 1922) 74.