A purple whale
Proudly sweeps his tail
Towards Nineveh;
Glassy green
Surges between
A mile of roaring sea.
‘O
town of gold,
Of
splendour multifold,
Lucre
and lust,
Leviathan’s
eye
Can
surely spy
Thy
doom of death and dust.’
On curving sands
Vengeful Jonah stands.
‘Yet
forty days,
Then
down, down,
Tumbles
the town
In
flaming ruin ablaze.’
With swift lament
Those Ninevites repent.
They cry in tears,
‘Our
hearts fail!
The
whale, the whale!
Our
sins prick us like spears.’
Jonah is vexed;
He cries, ‘What next? what next?’
And shakes his fist.
‘Stupid
city,
The
shame, the pity,
The
glorious crash I’ve missed.’
Away goes Jonah grumbling,
Murmuring and mumbling;
Off ploughs the purple whale,
With disappointed tail.
--Robert Graves, Jonah
Image source: Jacob Steinhart, Jonah Preaching in Nineveh
No comments:
Post a Comment