ALL night a noise of leaping fish <br />Went round the bay, <br />And up and down the shallow sands <br />Sang waters at their play. <br />The mangroves drooped on salty creeks, <br />And through the dark, <br />Making a pale patch in the deep, <br />Gleamed, as it swam, a shark. <br />In streaks and twists of sudden fire <br />Among the reeds <br />The bream went by, and where they passed <br />The bubbles shone like beads. <br />All night the full deep drinking-song <br />Of Nature stirred, <br />And nought beside, save leaping fish <br />And some forlorn night-bird. <br />No lost wind wandered down the hills <br />To tell of wide <br />Wild waterways; on velvet moved <br />The silky, sucking tide. <br />Deep down there sloped in shadowy mass <br />A giant hill; <br />And midway, mirrored in the tide, <br />The stars burned large and still. <br />The fisher, dreaming on the rocks, <br />Heard Nature say <br />Strange, secret things that none may hear <br />Upon the beaten way; <br />And whisperings and wonder stirred, <br />And hopes and fears, <br />And sadness touched his heart, and filled <br />His eyes with star-stained tears: <br />And so, thrilled through with joy and love <br />And sweet distress, <br />He stood entranced, enchained by her <br />Full-breasted loveliness.<br /><br />Roderic Quinn<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-fisher/
