'A Ship, an Isle, a Sickle Moon' Summary

James Elroy Flecker's "A Ship, an Isle, a Sickle Moon" is a short but powerful poem that explores the nature of reality, time, and imagination. The poem begins with a simple image: a ship, an isle, and a sickle moon. But as the poem unfolds, this image becomes increasingly symbolic, suggesting the fragility of life, the impermanence of all things, and the beauty of the natural world.

The poem's first stanza introduces the three central images:

A ship, an isle, a sickle moon—

With few but with how splendid stars

The mirrors of the sea are strewn

Between their silver bars!

The ship represents the journey of life, the isle represents the poet's own imagination, and the sickle moon represents the passing of time. The stars in the sea mirror the stars in the sky, suggesting the interconnectedness of all things.

In the second stanza, the poet begins to explore the symbolic meaning of the images:

An isle beside an isle she lay,

The pale ship anchored in the bay,

While in the young moon's port of gold

A star-ship—as the mirrors told—

Put forth its great and lonely light

to the unreflecting Ocean, Night.

The two isles represent the poet's imagination and the real world. The ship is anchored in the bay, suggesting that the poet's imagination is grounded in reality. But the star-ship in the young moon's port of gold suggests that the poet's imagination is also capable of soaring beyond the limits of the real world.

The third stanza explores the relationship between the poet's imagination and the passing of time:

And still, a ship upon her seas,

The isle and the island cypresses

Went sailing on without the gale:

And still there moved the moon so pale,

A crescent ship without a sail!

The ship and the isle are still sailing on, even though there is no wind. This suggests that the poet's imagination is always active, even when he is not consciously engaged in creating poetry. The moon is now a crescent, suggesting that even the most beautiful and enduring things are subject to the passage of time.

The poem's final stanza is a meditation on the fragility of life and the beauty of the natural world:

Like to the bending of a bow

The isle was curved, and then so low

The ship appeared that she was gone

Into the night, and yet, did on

Sail, like the moon, with never a stay,

On through the night and through the day.

The isle is curved like a bow, suggesting the fragility of life. The ship disappears into the night, suggesting the inevitability of death. But the ship also sails on, like the moon, suggesting that even in death, the soul continues to journey on.

Flecker's poem is a beautiful and moving meditation on the nature of reality, time, and imagination. It is a poem that can be read on many levels, and it is a poem that will stay with you long after you have finished reading it.