Lost Anchors

Like a dry fish flung inland far from shore, There lived a sailor, warped and ocean-browned, Who told of an old vessel, harbor-drowned, And out of mind a century before, Where divers, on descending to explore A legend that had lived its way around The world of ships, in the dark hulk had found Anchors, which had been seized and seen no more. Improving a dry leiure to invest Their misadventure with a manifest Analogy that he may read who runs, The sailor made it old as ocean grass-- Telling of much that once had come to pass With him, whose mother should have had no sons.