| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 1458. Sea Irony |
| | | By John Langdon Heaton |
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| ONE day I saw a ship upon the sands | |
| Careened upon beam ends, her tilted deck | |
| Swept clear of rubbish of her long-past wreck; | |
| Her colors struck, but not by human hands; | |
| Her masts the driftwood of what distant strands! | 5 |
| Her frowning ports, where at the Admiral’s beck | |
| Grim-visaged cannon held the foe in check, | |
| Gaped for the frolic of the minnow bands. | |
| The seaweed banners in her fo’ks’le waved, | |
| A turtle basked upon her capstan head; | 10 |
| Her cabin’s pomp the clownish sculpin braved, | |
| And on her prow, where the lost figure-head | |
| Once scorned the brine, a name forgot was graved. | |
It was “The Irresistible” I read!
BERMUDA, February, 1896. | |
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