Neptune’s Coursers
Horses of Neptune that bound and dash
Maddened with fear at the tempest’s lash,
Pawing the sand with their thudding feet
In a crashing rhythm of thunderous beat,
Swift as the startled winds they race,
Straining ever at fleeter pace;
Forms that curve where the billows comb,
Breasting a welter of seething foam,
What unseen riders spur them on
In a fierce stampede to be up and gone?
Out of the hoary deep they come,
Surging on with a booming roar,
Pounding ever along the shore,
Till the senses whirl and the ear grows numb.
Manes that stream in the wind swept spume,
Necks that arch in the breakers’ crest,
Hoofs resounding like drums of doom,
Rearing forward with frantic zest,
Wild are the steeds of the storm scarred deep!
Trident driven, they plunge and leap,
With nostrils spread and their eyes aglow,
And fetlocks gripped by the undertow,
Boisterous, raging, uncanny steeds
Out of an ocean waste that breeds
Chargers fit for a sea god’s needs -
Neptune’s coursers, untamed and free,
Fleeing the wrath of the unknown sea!