Jonah

A purple whale
Proudly sweeps his tail
Towards Nineveh;
Glassy green
Surges between
A mile of roaring sea.

"O town of gold,
Of splendour multifold,
Lucre and lust,
Leviathan's eye
Can surely spy
Thy doom of death and dust."

On curving sands
Vengeful Jonah stands.
"Yet forty days,
Then down, down,
Tumbles the town
In flaming ruin ablaze."

With swift lament
Those Ninevites repent.
They cry in tears,
"Our hearts fail!
The whale, the whale!
Our sins prick us like spears."

Jonah is vexed;
He cries, "What next? what next?"
And shakes his fist.
"Stupid city,
The shame, the pity,
The glorious crash I've missed."

Away goes Jonah grumbling,
Murmuring and mumbling;
Off ploughs the purple whale,
With disappointed tail.

Robert von Ranke Graves

Robert von Ranke Graves was a British poet, historical novelist, critic, and classicist. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a distinguished Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival. Known for his war poetry, love poems, and scholarly works, he created a lasting literary legacy, including his interpretations of the Greek myths. Graves was also a soldier in World War I, an experience that profoundly influenced his writing.

Robert von Ranke Graves

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Tom Taylor.

Robert von Ranke Graves, Simple Poetry

English

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I'll tell you the story of Jonah,
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The Spirit Of Navigation.[1]

    Stern Father of the storm! who dost abide
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    For ever listening to the sullen tide,
    And whirlwinds that the billowy desert sweep!
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(For Alden March)



With drooping sail and pennant
That never a wind may reach,
They float in sunless waters
Beside a sunless beach.
Their mighty masts and funnels
Are white as driven snow,
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Their ghostly bulwarks glow.

Here is a Spanish galleon
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Here is a Roman trireme
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White as the ice that clove her
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"All ready?" cried the captain;
"Ay, ay!" the seamen said;
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Fierce, bearded heads were thrust
"Now let the sharks look to it,
Toss up the dead ones first!"
Corpse after corpse came.up,
Death had been busy there;
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Sullenly from the ship,
Yet bloody with the traces
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Gloomily stood the captain,
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"Alas! what perils do environ
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Her head is crowned with pretty sea-wares,
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