Robert Graves

I Wonder What It Feels Like to be Drowned?

LOOK at my knees,    
That island rising from the steamy seas!    
The candle’s a tall lightship; my two hands    
Are boats and barges anchored to the sands,    
With mighty cliffs all round;            5
They’re full of wine and riches from far lands....    
I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?    
 
I can make caves,    
By lifting up the island and huge waves    
And storms, and then with head and ears well under     10
Blow bubbles with a monstrous roar like thunder,    
A bull—of—Bashan sound.    
The seas run high and the boats split asunder....    
I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?    
 
The thin soap slips     15
And slithers like a shark under the ships.    
My toes are on the soap—dish—that’s the effect    
Of my huge storms; an iron steamer’s wrecked.    
The soap slides round and round;    
He’s biting the old sailors, I expect....     20
I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?

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