[7]

 SEA SPRAY

What shall we do with our day? you ask—

“ June day fair to the heart’s desire—

Lie in the meadow, and lounge and bask

Over books and tobacco? Or do you aspire

To conquer the summit that yesterday

We marked for our own ere your visit end?

Or shall we go riding, or fishing? Nay,

For the scent of the sea’s on the air, my friend.

We shall go to the head of the reedy lake,

And there, in a brake by a fir-grove, find

Two long canoes with arching deck,

Sea-riders, strong for a day of wind;

And oh, what a song shall the bright wind sing us

When clear of the shallows and clear of the sedge,

While the narrowing stream and the ebb-tide swing us

’Twixt sea and mountain to Wicklow Bridge!

But here beware! for the ebb goes roaring

Through half the arches, and half are dry,

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