CRUISING.

Otago Witness, Issue 1024, 15 July 1871, Page 20

CRUISING.

"What are the days but islands, So many little islands, Anil sleep the .sea of silence That flows about them all? There, when the moon is risen, The peaceful water* glisten ; But yonder plashing — listen ! It is the .souls that fall. The little boats are skimming,_ The wind-led boats are skimming, Each in its silver limming, Ap.ut from fleet and shore. Thi re not an oar is dipping — With just a cable's clipping Glides out the phantom .shipping That w.iudei.i e\ermore. Evorv ilay's an island, A green or ban en island, A lowland or a highland, That looks upon the ->ea. There fnutful gioves are crowning ; There bairen cliffs are fi owning, And rocky channels drowning The little bonts that flee. How many are the islands, The teeming, talking islands, That in the sea of silence The roving vessels find ? Their number uo man knoweth ; Their wav the current showeth ; The tide returaless flowoth As each is left behind. The snilor3 long to tarry— For rest they long to tarn' — When at some isle of faery They touch and go ashore. With songs of wistful pleading They follow fate unheeding, And with the tide's receding Are drifting as before. But sometime, in the sailing, The blind and endless sailing, They pass beyond the bailing Of land upon the lee : The lowlands and the highlands, And all beyond the islands, Behold the sea of silence— Behold the great white sea.