_For Soldiers lost in Ocean Transports_ <br /> <br />When, after storms that woodlands rue, <br />To valleys comes atoning dawn, <br />The robins blithe their orchard-sports renew; <br />And meadow-larks, no more withdrawn <br />Caroling fly in the languid blue; <br />The while, from many a hid recess, <br />Alert to partake the blessedness, <br />The pouring mites their airy dance pursue. <br />So, after ocean's ghastly gales, <br />When laughing light of hoyden morning <br />breaks, <br />Every finny hider wakes-- <br />From vaults profound swims up with <br />glittering scales; <br />Through the delightsome sea he sails, <br />With shoals of shining tiny things <br />Frolic on every wave that flings <br />Against the prow its showery spray; <br />All creatures joying in the morn, <br />Save them forever from joyance torn, <br />Whose bark was lost where now the <br />dolphins play; <br />Save them that by the fabled shore, <br />Down the pale stream are washed away, <br />Far to the reef of bones are borne; <br />And never revisits them the light, <br />Nor sight of long-sought land and pilot more; <br />Nor heed they now the lone bird's flight <br />Round the lone spar where mid-sea surges <br />pour.<br /><br />Herman Melville<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-requiem-2/
