<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The White Ships and the Red</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">With</span> drooping sail and pennant</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That never a wind may reach,</p><p class="line">They float in sunless waters</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Beside a sunless beach.</p><p class="line">Their mighty masts and funnels</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Are white as driven snow,</p><p class="line">And with a pallid radiance</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Their ghostly bulwarks glow.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Here is a Spanish galleon</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That once with gold was gay,</p><p class="line">Here is a Roman trireme</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Whose hues outshone the day.</p><p class="line">But Tyrian dyes have faded</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And prows that once were bright</p><p class="line">With rainbow stains wear only</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Death's livid, dreadful white.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">White as the ice that clove her</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That unforgotten day,</p><p class="line">Among her pallid sisters</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The Grim <em>Titanic</em> lay.</p><p class="line">And through the leagues above her</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">She looked, aghast, and said:</p><p class="line">"What is this living ship that comes</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Where every ship is dead?"</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The ghostly vessels trembled</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">From ruined stern to prow;</p><p class="line">What was this thing of terror</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That broke their vigil now?</p><p class="line">Down through the startled ocean</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">A mighty vessel came,</p><p class="line">Not white, as all dead ships must be,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But red, like living flame!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The pale green waves about her</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Were swiftly, strangely dyed,</p><p class="line">By the great scarlet stream that flowed</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">From out her wounded side.</p><p class="line">And all her decks were scarlet</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And all her shattered crew.</p><p class="line">She sank among the white ghost ships</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And stained them through and through.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The grim <em>Titanic</em> greeted her</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">"And who art thou?" she said;</p><p class="line">"Why dost thou join our ghostly fleet</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Arrayed in living red?</p><p class="line">We are the ships of sorrow</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Who spend the weary night,</p><p class="line">Until the dawn of Judgment Day,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Obscure and still and white."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"Nay," said the scarlet visitor,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">"Though I sink through the sea</p><p class="line">A ruined thing that was a ship</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I sink not as did ye.</p><p class="line">For ye met with your destiny</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">By storm or rock or fight,</p><p class="line">So through the lagging centuries</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Ye wear your robes of white.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"But never crashing iceberg</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Nor honest shot of foe,</p><p class="line">Nor hidden reef has sent me</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The way that I must go.</p><p class="line">My wound that stains the waters,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">My blood that is like flame,</p><p class="line">Bear witness to a loathly deed,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">A deed without a name.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"I went not forth to battle,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I carried friendly men,</p><p class="line">The children played about my decks,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The women sang -- and then --</p><p class="line">And then -- the sun blushed scarlet</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And Heaven hid its face,</p><p class="line">The world that God created</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Became a shameful place!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"My wrong cries out for vengeance,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The blow that sent me here</p><p class="line">Was aimed in Hell. My dying scream</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Has reached Jehovah's ear.</p><p class="line">Not all the seven oceans</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Shall wash away the stain;</p><p class="line">Upon a brow that wears a crown</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I am the brand of Cain."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">When God's great voice assembles</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The fleet on Judgment Day,</p><p class="line">The ghosts of ruined ships will rise</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">In sea and strait and bay.</p><p class="line">Though they have lain for ages</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Beneath the changeless flood,</p><p class="line">They shall be white as silver.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But one -- shall be like blood.</p></div><p class="byline">-- Joyce Kilmer.</p></body></html> · Great War