ALONG SHORE.

New Zealand Tablet, 14 April 1921, Page 37

ALONG SHORE.

Far on that stretch of rippled sand there sleeps A solitary heap of wood and weed; - * A'skeleton; which once upon the wave Under bright clouds of canvas filled with air, Smiled o’er its image in the flood below. The shore-wave plashes in its weeded ribs The white gull wheels above it; and the wild, wind Screams whistling through it when dark evening shuts The ripple whispers to it of the warmth, 7 Of drowsy tropic ocean; or the breeze, &*** Of green palm-paradises of the south, Of busied voices and close crowds of masts. Far on the melancholy waste of sand •■u ( - Where save that tumbling breaker nothing moves, It holds its blackened timbers in the sun. ~ T, kg ...... y . ' . ... . ' , ' "*• ‘ ■' *' > Yet once each day comes its redeeming hour. " A When the hot sunset blazes through its side, t And airy mists of evening hang light swells A‘> H-v-Of purple canvas o’er —when fancy sees- ,> The deck-rails glimmer, and brown sailor brows 7 Gaze , out along the horizon-line. Once , more : >?. Cresting the salt ridge like an ocean nymph It dips along toward some green oval isle , , . V In tropic seas remote. X So with all dreams I' V The brightest still the briefest—See, ’tis gone! X '•.v> Once more the melancholy : evening shore The cold foam tumbling on its weed-strewn waste; 7 ‘ And one white gull that through the west’s red light 7 Sails, winnowing heavily o’er the j distant sea. 7 > -v"7 ... ’'7; . ’77: —John Kane, LL.D. X'