Page:Pleasant Memories.pdf/26

Attention in a trance, and memory drive
To the four winds.
                               Here sit a pair at chess,
Absorbed of course, and there another group,
Who, scarcely keep a show of life, to drag
Some other drowsy game. Still wiser those,
Who to the dull necessity of things
Yielding perforce, on sofa, or on chair,
Doze oyster-like.
                              I would not wish to be
Fastidious, or too difficult to please;
Yet I've a fondness now and then to tread
On something firm, and not be always dashed
Against the wall when walking, nor in sleep
Tossed from the pillow to the state-room floor,
Aghast and ill at ease.
                                     Yet these are freaks
Doubtless unworthy to be kept in mind;
And we have much to thank thee for, Oh Deep!
And would not be ungrateful. Thou hast shown
Thy summer face, and poured thy bracing air
Salubrious round us, and called freely forth
Thy various actors on their tossing stage;
The kingly whale, the porpoise in huge shoals
Disporting heavily, the rough sea-horse
Churning the foam, like ponderous elephant,
The dolphin, fainting in his rainbow shroud,
The white gull, sailing through the blue serene,