Thursday, May 26, 2005

 
I have an artist friend who asked me to suggest to her poems having to do with naval battles (a theme she's working on now) and for the life of me I can think of none. Lots of sea poems come to mind; and a few passages from Shakespeare (Antony & Cleopatra, Othello) deal with the subject; but still, I can think of no sea battle poems proper. The best I could offer was Moby-Dick, which is pretty good, but still. I do think I remember there being accounts of such things (naval battles, that is) in the Cantos, but I don't remember where and scanning through them isn't jogging my memory. Same goes for the Maximus poems.

So I'm asking you out there, do you know of any such poems? Much thanks, for any, obscure or no.

# posted by Stuart Greenhouse @ 5/26/2005 09:58:00 PM
Comments:
Hi, Stuart--off the top: Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a poem called "Old Ironsides" about a battle-ship. I'm not promising beauty, but it's .
# posted by Blogger Emily Lloyd : 1:43 AM
 
Whoops--click on that period in my first post; it's a link (and was supposed to say "here")
# posted by Blogger Emily Lloyd : 1:44 AM
 
Wow, good one. Thanks, Emily.
# posted by Blogger Stuart Greenhouse : 7:44 AM
 
Each one of Christian Bok's "chapters" in Eunoia contains a sea battle. Also a feast, an orgy, and a meditation on writing itself.
# posted by Blogger Unknown : 3:06 PM
 
Josh,

Thanks--that sounds perfect. The excerpts on the website are intriguing too. Another one on the wishlist!
# posted by Blogger Stuart Greenhouse : 12:13 PM
 
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