FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93  
94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   >>   >|  
idowed queen, And the love of the noble dead; And the fear and fame Of the island's name Where my boy was born and bred. "Content thee, content thee, let it alone, Thou marked for a choice so rare; Though treaties be treaties, never a throne Was proffered for cause as fair. Yet come to me home, Through the salt sea foam, For the Greek must ask elsewhere. "'Tis a pity, my sailor, but who can tell? Many lands they look to me; One of these might be wanting a Prince as well, But that's as hereafter may be." She raised her white head And laughed; and she said "That's as hereafter may be." BROTHERS, AND A SERMON. It was a village built in a green rent, Between two cliffs that skirt the dangerous bay A reef of level rock runs out to sea, And you may lie on it and look sheer down, Just where the "Grace of Sunderland" was lost, And see the elastic banners of the dulse Rock softly, and the orange star-fish creep Across the laver, and the mackerel shoot Over and under it, like silver boats Turning at will and plying under water. There on that reef we lay upon our breasts, My brother and I, and half the village lads, For an old fisherman had called to us With "Sirs, the syle be come." "And what are they?" My brother said. "Good lack!" the old man cried, And shook his head; "To think you gentlefolk Should ask what syle be! Look you; I can't say What syle be called in your fine dictionaries, Nor what name God Almighty calls them by When their food's ready and He sends them south: But our folk call them syle, and nought but syle, And when they're grown, why then we call them herring. I tell you, Sir, the water is as full Of them as pastures be of blades of grass; You'll draw a score out in a landing net, And none of them be longer than a pin. "Syle! ay, indeed, we should be badly off, I reckon, and so would God Almighty's gulls," He grumbled on in his quaint piety, "And all His other birds, if He should say I will not drive my syle into the south; The fisher folk may do without my syle, And do without the shoals of fish it draws To follow and feed on it." This said, we made Our peace with him by means of two small coins, And down we ran and lay upon the reef, And saw the swimming infants, emerald green, In separate shoals, the scarcely turning ebb Bringing them in; while sleek, and not intent On chase, b
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93  
94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Almighty

 

village

 

called

 
treaties
 
brother
 

shoals

 
gentlefolk
 

herring

 

pastures

 

blades


Should
 

dictionaries

 

nought

 

follow

 

swimming

 
infants
 

intent

 

Bringing

 

emerald

 
separate

scarcely

 
turning
 

fisher

 

longer

 

landing

 

reckon

 

grumbled

 
quaint
 

sailor

 

Through


raised

 

laughed

 

Prince

 

wanting

 

island

 

idowed

 

Content

 

content

 

Though

 

throne


proffered

 

choice

 

marked

 

silver

 

Turning

 

mackerel

 
orange
 

Across

 

plying

 

fisherman