Whales and Poetry
Browsing around the other day I came across a poem about whales by D H Lawrence. Entitled Whales Weep Not it is about their love life.
They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains
the hottest blood of all, …
Reading it made me wonder if others have written poems about whales.
Hawaii has a welcoming celebration for the migrating humpbacks and this includes poetry, but none of the poems are quoted on the website.
The orcas get a whole site for their poems. But this is made up for on Hello Poetry which covers all whales.
I also found a number of short doggerels, as if the hugeness and majesty of whales are more manageable in small, simple pieces.
e a m harris 
My pedantic nature forces to put in a note about something you certainly know, the appearance of whales in Old English poetry, including one full poem, “The Whale,” from the Exeter Book. The poem describe’s the whale’s nefarious habit of posing as an island to which unsuspecting seafarers happily moor their boats and camp, only to have the whale (an agent of Satan) take them to watery ends. Fiercely dramatic and full of lovely poetic images as compelling as anything modern poets can do with our contemporary version of the language. Not as sexy as Lawrence, though. Thanks for the whale poetry.
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Thank you for reminding me of the Exeter Book poem; I’ve heard of it but only ever read short excerpts. Not sure I like the idea of whales as agents of Satan – I always think of them as nice creatures.
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We’re stuck with the fact that most of what was written down and preserved from that era was done by ecclestiastics. They had axes to grind.
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Too true. Pity bad-mouthing whales is one of the axes.
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