The Sea-Gull.
Wanderer whence ? From earth, or air, or ocean ?1
Hast thou thine home mid clouds or on the billow ?2
Or from some northern crag by sea-bird haunted,3
Hangs thy wild eyrie ?4
Thou hast a charm to thrall mine eager fancy5
More than all songsters of each brake and meadow :6
Bird, shall I name thee, spirit, or a dauntless7
Child of the tempest ?8
Whether on high thou hov’rest o’er thy nestlings,9
Whilst they in callow treblo shrill their hunger,10
Still with o’erladen bill—a starveling mother—11
Swiftly returning :12
Or, spirit-like, with pinion airy-flitting,13
On the glass’d wave spread’st out an ample plumage,14
Changefully glancing—rosy ’neath the sunset,15
White on the ocean :16
Or with a prouder swoop against the darkness,17
When the lashed sea-wrack howls beneath the storm-blast,18
Screamest exultant, on the yeasty surges19
Fearlessly brooding.20
What tho’ at times thou seem’st in every guisement21
Lightly to gleam along the gleaming water,22
Still would I deem thee—nomad of the sea-shore,23
Nature’s own nurseling.24