 | [Poems by Drake in] The life and works of Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) |  |
XIX
The imps of the river yell and rave;They had no power above the wave,
But they heaved the billow before the prow,
And they dashed the surge against her side,
And they struck her keel with jerk and blow,
Till her gunwale bent to the rocking tide.
She wimpled about in the pale moonbeam,
Like a feather that floats on a wave-tossed stream;
And momently athwart her track
The quarl upreared his island back,
And the fluttering scallop behind would float,
And spatter the water about the boat;
But he bailed her out with his colen-bell,
And he kept her trimmed with a wary tread,
159
The heavy strokes of the bootle blade.
| [Poems by Drake in] The life and works of Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) | |