Famous Navigation Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Navigation poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous navigation poems. These examples illustrate what a famous navigation poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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A poem on the rising glory of America

...ce of history proclaims. 
The Carthaginians, e'er the Roman yoke 
Broke their proud spirits and enslav'd them too, 
For navigation were renown'd as much 
As haughty Tyre with all her hundred fleets; 
Full many: league their vent'rous seamen sail'd 
Thro' strait Gibraltar down the western shore 
Of Africa, and to Canary isles 
By them call'd fortunate, so Flaccus sings, 
Because eternal spring there crowns the fields, 
And fruits delicious bloom throughout the year. 
From voya...Read more of this...
by Brackenridge, Hugh Henry


A stagnant pleasure like a Pool

...stagnant pleasure like a Pool
That lets its Rushes grow
Until they heedless tumble in
And make the Water slow

Impeding navigation bright
Of Shadows going down
Yet even this shall rouse itself
When freshets come along....Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily

American Feuillage

...quare
 miles; 
The eighteen thousand miles of sea-coast and bay-coast on the main—the thirty
 thousand
 miles of
 river navigation, 
The seven millions of distinct families, and the same number of dwellings—Always
 these,
 and
 more, branching forth into numberless branches; 
Always the free range and diversity! always the continent of Democracy! 
Always the prairies, pastures, forests, vast cities, travelers, Kanada, the snows;
Always these compact lands—lands tied at the hi...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

Fit the First: ( Hunting of the Snark )

...Conveyed in a separate ship:
But the Bellman declared that would never agree
With the plans he had made for the trip: 

Navigation was always a difficult art,
Though with only one ship and one bell:
And he feared he must really decline, for his part,
Undertaking another as well. 

The Beaver's best course was, no doubt, to procure
A second-hand dagger-proof coat--
So the baker advised it--and next, to insure
Its life in some Office of note: 

This the Baker suggested, and off...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

Ive known a Heaven like a Tent

...t of the Thing
That dazzled, Yesterday,
No Ring -- no Marvel --
Men, and Feats --
Dissolved as utterly --
As Bird's far Navigation
Discloses just a Hue --
A plash of Oars, a Gaiety --
Then swallowed up, of View....Read more of this...
by Dickinson, Emily


Man

...eing; to our mind
          In their ascent and cause.

          Each thing is full of duty:
Waters united are our navigation;
     Distinguishèd, our habitation;
     Below, our drink; above, our meat;
Both are our cleanliness.  Hath one such beauty?
          Then how are all things neat?

          More servants wait on Man
Than he'll take notice of:  in every path
     He treads down that which doth befriend him
     When sickness makes him pale and wan.
O ...Read more of this...
by Herbert, George

Man

...n their descent and being; to our mind 
In their ascent and cause. 

Each thing is full of duty: 
Waters united are our navigation; 
Distinguished, our habitation; 
Below, our drink; above, our meat; 
Both are our cleanliness.
Hath one such beauty? 
Then how are all things neat? 

More servants wait on Man, 
Than he'll take notice of: in ev'ry path 
He treads down that which doth befriend him, 
When sickness makes him pale and wan. 
Oh mighty love! Man is one world, and hath ...Read more of this...
by Brautigan, Richard

Prayer of Columbus

...eld my ships to Thee.

Steersman unseen! henceforth the helms are Thine; 
Take Thou command—(what to my petty skill Thy navigation?) 
My hands, my limbs grow nerveless; 
My brain feels rack’d, bewilder’d; Let the old timbers part—I will not
 part! 
I will cling fast to Thee, O God, though the waves buffet me;
Thee, Thee, at least, I know. 

Is it the prophet’s thought I speak, or am I raving? 
What do I know of life? what of myself? 
I know not even my own work, past or prese...Read more of this...
by Whitman, Walt

The Hunting Of The Snark

...Conveyed in a separate ship:
But the Bellman declared that would never agree
 With the plans he had made for the trip:

Navigation was always a difficult art,
 Though with only one ship and one bell:
And he feared he must really decline, for his part,
 Undertaking another as well.

The Beaver's best course was, no doubt, to procure
 A second-hand dagger-proof coat--
So the Baker advised it-- and next, to insure
 Its life in some Office of note:

This the Banker suggested, and...Read more of this...
by Carroll, Lewis

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