A POEM.
159
Immortal wealth, the seeds of better life.
Thou goddess! by the softening sun beloved, 40
Rejoicest, he with unfulfilled desire,
Delights not only on thy face to dwell,
In amorous smile, the live-long summer's day;
But looking back from the Atlantic brine,
Eyes thy glad slumbers with reflected beam,
And glitters o'er thy head the clear night long.
Of thee enamoured is the rugged deep,
Though barren elsewhere deemed; yet here to thee
Lavish of gifts, and many a lover's boon;
Fruitful through all the seasons, wet and dry, 50
And infinite in ever-growing store.
With herrings countless swarms thy western bays
He loads; they in such myriads throng the sides
Of Arran high, and Lews where lakes abound,
That oft the net breaks overcharged, and oft
The fisher, wanton, after plenteous draught,
Grown wild of wealth, into the roaring tide
Throws back, for days more hard, the lesser fry.
To these republics small, the tyrant whale,
Full of his brutal might, is still a foe. 60
Not that most bulky kind, in Greenland caught,
But smaller, such as oft in Seafort bay,
Thou goddess! by the softening sun beloved, 40
Rejoicest, he with unfulfilled desire,
Delights not only on thy face to dwell,
In amorous smile, the live-long summer's day;
But looking back from the Atlantic brine,
Eyes thy glad slumbers with reflected beam,
And glitters o'er thy head the clear night long.
Of thee enamoured is the rugged deep,
Though barren elsewhere deemed; yet here to thee
Lavish of gifts, and many a lover's boon;
Fruitful through all the seasons, wet and dry, 50
And infinite in ever-growing store.
With herrings countless swarms thy western bays
He loads; they in such myriads throng the sides
Of Arran high, and Lews where lakes abound,
That oft the net breaks overcharged, and oft
The fisher, wanton, after plenteous draught,
Grown wild of wealth, into the roaring tide
Throws back, for days more hard, the lesser fry.
To these republics small, the tyrant whale,
Full of his brutal might, is still a foe. 60
Not that most bulky kind, in Greenland caught,
But smaller, such as oft in Seafort bay,
