Poetry corner: Sargasso Weed by Edmund Clarence Stedman

July 16, 2024 Samantha Andrews

In 1879, Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833 - 1908) designed a rigid airship inspired by the anatomy of a fish. His airship was never built, by Stedman’s literary works came steadily. Between 1875 and 1892, Stedman had the fortune to travel to the Caribbean. His poem “Sargasso Weed” was inspired by this journey and is as much about the swaths of sargassum that float in the sea as it is a criticism of European and American imperialism in the region.

Out from the seething Stream ⁠To the steadfast trade-wind's courses, Over the bright vast swirl ⁠Of a tide from evil free,— Where the ship has a level beam, ⁠And the storm has spent his forces, And the sky is a hollow pearl ⁠Curved over a sapphire sea. Here it floats as of old, ⁠Beaded with gold and amber, Sea-frond buoyed with fruit, ⁠Sere as the yellow oak, Long since carven and scrolled, ⁠Of some blue-ceiled Gothic chamber Used to the viol and lute ⁠And the ancient belfry's stroke. Eddying far and still ⁠In the drift that never ceases, The dun Sargasso weed ⁠Slips from before our prow, And its sight makes strong our will, ⁠As of old the Genoese's, When he stood in his hour of need ⁠On the Santa Maria's bow. Ay, and the winds at play ⁠Toy with these peopled islands, Each of itself as well ⁠Naught but a brave New World, Where the crab and sea-slug stay ⁠In the lochs of its tiny highlands, And the nautilus moors his shell ⁠With his sail and streamers furled. Each floats ever and on ⁠As the round green Earth is floating Out through the sea of space ⁠Bearing our mortal kind, Parasites soon to be gone, ⁠Whom others be sure are noting, While to their astral race ⁠We in our turn are blind.

Sargasso Weed has been reproduced here under the Public Domain licence.