The Poems of George Arnold Author:George Arnold General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1889 Original Publisher: J. R. Osgood and company Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com wher... more »e you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: DRIFT. A SEA-SHORE IDYL. T WEARIED once of inland fields and hills, Of low-lying meadows and of sluggish streams, Creeping beneath the trees that summer-heats Had parched to dusty dryness ; and a dream Of fresh, cool breezes and of salty waves, Of azure skies o'erarching azure seas, Of tangled seaweed from unfathomed deeps, Came over me ; and so I left the hills, To sojourn, through the riper summer-months. Upon the shore. There, in a lonely house, So near the breakers that their misty foam Whitely enwrapped it when the storm raged high,42 Drift. I let my summer-days pass idly on. Yet not all idly : when the morn was fair, And soft winds bore strange odors from the sea Through open casements, oftentimes I wrote -- Weaving brief rhymes, disjointed, and, perhaps, Too simple for the lovers of great poems. A ship went sailing from the shore, And vanished in the gleaming west, Where purple clouds a lining bore Of gold and amethyst. Poised in the air, a sea-gull flashed His white wings in the sun's last ray; A moment hung, then downward dashed, To revel in the spray. The fishers drew their long nets in With careful eye and steady hand, Till olive back and silvery fin Strewed all the tawny sand. Drift. 43 Again I trod the shore ; again The sea-gull circled high in air ; Again the sturdy fishermen Drew in their nets with care. The sunset's gold and amethyst Shone fairly, as I paced the shore, But back from out the gleaming west The ship came -- nevermore ! 1I. After the first days, goodly company ...« less