Emily Dickinson

The Complete Poems [1924]

It tossed and tossed

IT tossed and tossed,--
A little brig I knew,--
O'ertook by blast,
It spun and spun,
And groped delirious, for morn.

It slipped and slipped,
As one that drunken stepped;
Its white foot tripped,
Then dropped from sight.

Ah, brig, good-night
To crew and you;
The ocean's heart too smooth, too blue,
To break for you.