The Flying Dutchman by Edwin Arlington Robinson
The Flying Dutchman is a solitary, defiant voyager who commands no one and serves no one, relying on Science and his own single-minded purpose as he searches for the Vanished Land, the shore from which humanity came. He sails through nameless seas and successive nights, guided only by his thought and unafraid of whatever danger may entrap him. Even when an unnatural dawn appears without the sun and he cannot see his own course, he continues onward. At last, a cloud lifts between the sea and sky, revealing a place haunted by the ghost of what has been before. Though he may curse the deathless Power behind it, he turns away, as he always does, leaving behind another island enclosed by fog.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1897 · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Allegorical Poetry, Philosophical Poetry · 195 words
First lines
UNYIELDING in the pride of his defiance, / Afloat with none to serve or to command, / Lord of himself at last, and all by Science, / He seeks the Vanished Land.
Alone, by the one light of his one thought,
He steers to find the shore from which we came, / Fearless of in what coil he may be caught
On seas that have no name.
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The Flying Dutchman is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1897 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Date: 1897 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Narrative Poetry, Allegorical Poetry, Philosophical Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Symbolist Poetry
- Length: 195 words
- Structure: 1 section, 13 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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Genres
- Narrative Poetry — The poem recounts the solitary voyage and actions of a central figure, advancing through a sequence of imagined maritime events.
- Allegorical Poetry — The sailor's pursuit of the 'Vanished Land' and repeated rejection of haunted islands allegorize humanity's restless search for origin, truth, or transcendence.
- Philosophical Poetry — Its central concerns are individual will, knowledge, mortality, scientific self-reliance, existential isolation, and the limits of human understanding.
- Lyric Poetry — Though it has narrative movement, the work is chiefly driven by compressed imagery, meditation, musical stanza form, and symbolic emotional resonance.
Tags
poetry · narrative poem · modernist poetry · sea voyage · maritime legend · supernatural · ghost ship · cursed captain · isolation · fate · damnation · death