“A brackish reach of shoal off Madaket--
The sea was still breaking violently and night
Had steamed into our North Atlantic Fleet,
When the drowned sailor clutched the drag-net. Light
Flashed from his matted head and marble feet,
He grappled at the net
With the coiled, hurdling muscles of his thighs:
The corpse was bloodless, a botch of reds and whites,
Its open, staring eyes
Were lustreless dead-lights
Or cabin-windows on a stranded hulk
Heavy with sand.”

Poem: The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lowell/onlinepoems.htm

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Robert Lowell 5
Poet 1917–1977

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