A bargeman heard the Statue of Liberty speak;
Once, just once, he saw her bend,
Set her torch upon a peak,
Gather her sheathing, and descend.
No mere display of might,
No calculated show
Moved Her Stateliness so
To shift her height;
But a whale from the open sea
With a plea, a pang, a wounded pride;
Rumors of her stature had implied
There dwelt a creature mightier than he.
“No,” said the Statue, “I defer,
And to your greater standard I refer;
Less than the knots of your leviathan span
Are my, mere mortal, statute miles of man.”
The whale was soothed, and spouted in content;
The bargeman watched his sleek diminishing back;
Was it a tale the Statue would invent?
A lie to keep the benthic peace intact?
The luminous wake had faded into black;
The Statue turned, retrieved her lamp, and rose,
Resumed her old uncompromising pose,
And let the witness ponder her intent.
This poem is based on the Japanese legend of the Daibutsu and the Whale.