Sylvia Plath

Battle-Scene From the Comic Operatic Fantasy The Seafarer

It beguiles— This little Odyssey In pink and lavender Over a surface of gently- Graded turquoise tiles That represent a sea With chequered waves and gaily Bear up the seafarer, Gaily, gaily, In his pink plume and armor. A lantern-frail Gondola of paper Ferries the fishpond Sindbad Who poises his pastel spear Toward three pinky-purple Monsters which uprear Off the ocean-floor With fanged and dreadful head. Beware, beware The whale, the shark, the squid. But fins and scales Of each scrolled sea-beast Troll no slime, no weed. They are polished for the joust, They gleam like easter eggshells, Rose and amethyst. Ahab, fulfill your boast: Bring home each storied head. One thrust, one thrust, One thrust: and they are sped. So fables go. And so all children sing Their bathtub battles deep, Hazardous and long, But oh, sage grownups know Sea-dragon for sofa, fang For pasteboard, and siren-song For fever in a sleep. Laughing, laughing Of graybeards wakes us up.