They began to go
To pieces at once under the waves’ hammer.
Sick at heart since that first stroke, they moved
Nevertheless as they had learned always to move
When it should come, not weighing hope against
The weight of the water, yet knowing that no breath
Would escape to betray what they underwent then.
Dazed, incredulous, that it had come,
That they could recognize it….
…And to some it seemed that the waves
Grew gentle, spared them, while they died of that knowledge.
“The Shipwreck” (Green with Beasts, 1956)
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