Poems (Dickinson)/Two swimmers wrestled on the spar

by Emily Dickinson

For other versions of this work, see Two swimmers wrestled on the spar—.

XXVI.

Two swimmers wrestled on the spar
Until the morning sun,
When one turned smiling to the land.
O God, the other one!

The stray ships passing spied a face
Upon the waters borne,
With eyes in death still begging raised,
And hands beseeching thrown.