Читать книгу Hazards - Wilfrid Wilson Gibson - Страница 6

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Stifled all day by suffocating fluff

That filled the humming mill—at sunset free

She sauntered downward to the windy quay,

To clear her breathing of the choking stuff,

And rid her nostrils of the reek of jute,

Her senses, of the droning of the mill:

And she rejoiced to hear the eager hoot

Of the incoming whalers; and to fill

Her lungs with briny savours; and to see

The bearded, salt-encrusted venturers

Whose hearts had dared the sheer immensity

Of the whales’ playground; and whose life, to hers—

Tied to a rattling loom through all her days

In a sick humid smothering atmosphere—

Seemed life, indeed, in shattering bright ways

Of wind-sheared shivering waters, tossing clear

To limitless horizons ...

To limitless horizons ...And to-night,

Sparkling, aware and eager eyed, she saw

The still blue eyes of a young whaler light

As he looked into hers; and sudden awe

Filled her young heart, as though the very sea,

Darkling and dangerous, claimed her for its bride,

And salt tumultuous waters thunderously

Crashed drowning over her, tide after tide.