 | Sonnets Round the Coast |  |
153
VII. THE FISHER HOUSES AT RUNSWICK BAY.
Two hundred years have scarce repaired the wrongDone by the hungry waves that still devour,
And all who fled that dark disastrous hour
Are safe, beyond earth's crumbling. How the throng
Of red-roofed houses, that have climbed along
Their golden cliff, peep forth from apple bower
Brave as the fisher girls in calm, or cower
Silent as fisher folk when storms are strong.
Like gay-cloaked gossips stand they knot by knot,
Shoulder to shoulder, and, from every hearth,
Rises as one the smoke that seamen hail;
Steep are the ledgy steps from cot to cot,
Love crowns each height, there is no place on earth
So dear to those who in the offing sail.
| Sonnets Round the Coast | |