SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH POETRY

There now they float, heads raised above the green,

White bodies cloudily seen,

Farther and farther from the brazen rock, 30

On which the hot air shakes, on which the tide

Fruitlessly throws with gentle, soundless shock

The cool and lagging wave. Out, out they go,

And now upon.a mirrored cloud they ride

Or turning over, with soft strokes and slow, '35

Slide on like shadows in a tranquil sky.

Behind them, on the tall, parched cliff, the dry

And dusty grasses grow

In shallow ledges of the arid stone,

Starving for coolness and the touch of rain 40

But, though to earth they must return again,

Here come the soft sea-airs to meet them, blown

Over the surface of the outer deep,

Scarce moving, staying, falling, straying, gone,

Light and delightful as the touch of sleep......... 45

One wakes and splashes round.

And, as by magic, all the others wake

From that sea-dream, and now with rippling sound

Their rapid arms the enchanted silence break.

And now again the crystal shallows take 50

The gleaming bodies whose cool hour is done;

They pause upon the beach, they pause and sigh

Then vanish in the caverns one by one.

Soon the wet foot-marks on the stones are dry:

The cove sleeps on beneath the unwavering sun. 55

BS2