Even modern poets mention the phenomenon but rarely. Camoens himself, whom Humboldt, on account of his beautiful oceanic descriptions, calls, above all others, the "poet of the sea," forgets to sing it in his Lusiad. Byron in his "Corsair" has a few lines on the subject:
"Flash'd the dipt oars, and, sparkling with the stroke,
Around the waves phosphoric brightness broke;"
but contents himself, as we see, with coldly mentioning a phenomenon so worthy of all a poet's enthusiasm. In Coleridge's wondrous ballad of "The ancient Mariner" we find a warmer description:
"Beyond the shadow of the ship
I watch'd the water-snakes:
They moved in tracks of shining white,
And, when they rear'd, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.
"Within the shadow of the ship
I watch'd their rich attire—
Blue, glossy green, and velvet black:
They coiled and swam, and every track
Was a flash of golden fire."
These indeed are lines whose brilliancy emulates the splendour of the phenomenon they depict, but even they are hardly more beautiful than Crabbe's admirable description:
"And now your view upon the ocean turn,
And there the splendour of the waves discern;
Cast but a stone, or strike them with an oar,
And you shall flames within the deep explore;
Or scoop the stream phosphoric as you stand,
And the cold flames shall flash along your hand;
When, lost in wonder, you shall walk and gaze
On weeds that sparkle, and on waves that blaze."
Or than the graphic numbers of Sir Walter Scott:
"Awak'd before the rushing prow,
The mimic fires of ocean glow,
Those lightnings of the wave;
Wild sparkles crest the broken tides.
And flashing round, the vessel's sides
With elfish lustre lave;
While, far behind, their livid light
To the dark billows of the night
A blooming splendour gave."