I saw a ship of material build <br />(Her standards set, her brave apparel on) <br />Directed as by madness mere <br />Against a solid iceberg steer, <br />Nor budge it, though the infactuate ship went down. <br />The impact made huge ice-cubes fall <br />Sullen in tons that crashed the deck; <br />But that one avalanche was all-- <br />No other movement save the foundering wreck. <br /> <br />Along the spurs of ridges pale, <br />Not any slenderest shaft and frail, <br />A prism over glass-green gorges lone, <br />Toppled; or lace or traceries fine, <br />Nor pendant drops in grot or mine <br />Were jarred, when the stunned ship went down. <br />Nor sole the gulls in cloud that wheeled <br />Circling one snow-flanked peak afar, <br />But nearer fowl the floes that skimmed <br />And crystal beaches, felt no jar. <br />No thrill transmitted stirred the lock <br />Of jack-straw neddle-ice at base; <br />Towers indermined by waves--the block <br />Atilt impending-- kept their place. <br />Seals, dozing sleek on sliddery ledges <br />Slipt never, when by loftier edges <br />Through the inertia ovrthrown, <br />The impetuous ship in bafflement went down. <br /> <br />Hard Berg (methought), so cold, so vast, <br />With mortal damps self-overcast; <br />Exhaling still thy dankish breath-- <br />Adrift dissolving, bound for death; <br />Though lumpish thou, a lumbering one-- <br />A lumbering lubbard loitering slow, <br />Impingers rue thee ad go slow <br />Sounding thy precipice below, <br />Nor stir the slimy slug that sprawls <br />Along thy dead indifference of walls.<br /><br />Herman Melville<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-berg-a-dream/
