Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BLUE WAKE, by CHARLES LOUIS HENRY WAGNER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BLUE WAKE, by                    
First Line: As the blood-red sun sank in the western sky
Last Line: To furnish her a home.
Subject(s): Absence; Blue (color); Sea; Wakes; Separation; Isolation; Ocean


As the blood-red sun sank in the western sky
O'er sultry, summer sea,
And the hazy mists of the night crept nigh
Encroaching, silently,
I sat by the rail of a schooner's bow
And watched a towering ship,
A queen of the sea, with her massive prow
Proud set for an eastward trip.

And her decks were black with a merry throng,
A happy, singing crowd,
So calm was the sea that I heard their song
And joyful noises loud,
And I waved my hand as the ship sped by,
A few waved back at me,
But my heart was heavy, I knew not why,
That evening on the sea.

As the ship sailed by with its rings of smoke
Marked cloud-like far astern,
I could hear the hoarse throat of a fog-horn, croak
In steady numbered turn;
I have seen strange sights, but the strangest seen
In my sailings on the deep,
Was the blue-tinged wake of that ocean-queen,
Not white from the screw's bold sweep.

And the blue-frothed wake on that summer night
Reflected the ruddy gleams
Of the blood-red sun, and that eerie sight
Still haunts me in my dreams;
Then I called to the men of the schooner's crew,
And I pointed to the wake,
And I asked them why that froth was blue,
To a man I saw them quake!

Then the mate upspake in a solemn tone,
His eyes with fear aglow,
"You ship is doomed, ere the night has flown
She lies in depths below;
For sailors know when the mermaids glean
The white from a foaming wake,
'Tis used as a fringe for its lustrous sheen
On bridal gowns they make.

And the ship they choose to rob of the foam
That gleams so white and fair
On its glistening wake, is chosen as home
For some sea-bridal pair;
And the ghosts of the men who are lost on board
Each craft that meets such doom,
Must dance at the revels they afford
For the mermaid bride and groom.

'Tis a sailor's yarn, but its truth, I know,
And proved full many times,
Ere the sun shall rise with the morning glow
The Sea-Nymph's wedding chimes
Shall call from the deep, and yon vessel is lost;
Mark me!" said the sailor bold,
"'Tis an awful price that such weddings cost,
Yet this is the doom foretold!"

Then I looked again at the noble ship
Now sailing far away,
And I saw the mists of the fog engrip
And close around their prey;
And the rising wind from the east brought back
The sound of revelry,
But we shifted sail on the lee-shore tack
And ran for the nearest quay.

Oh, that awful night on that Irish coast,
'Twas a night of misery,
When that proud, proud ship with its mighty host
Was lost in the raging sea;
And they tell a tale how the war craft smote
A hole in her mighty prow,
How there was not time for to man a boat,
She sank like a rotted scow.

Then I thought of that bronzed old seaman's tale,
Alas! my friends, too true,
And the prophecy at the schooner's rail
Of the vessel's wake, tinged blue;
And I wondered, too, if some mermaid bride
Wore a veil of whited foam,
If she danced with the ghosts of the men who died
To furnish her a home.





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