Page:Poems Larcom.djvu/41

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the legend of skadi.
25
And Njord could but listen, and go with his bride;
But there for his sea-haunts he drearily sighed.

"O Skadi, come back to the warm, sunny surf!
The beach-sand is smoother than frost-bitten turf;
I like not, at midnight, the wolfs hungry howl,
The bear's stealthy footstep, the shriek of the owl.

"Nine sunsets, my Skadi, from sole love of thee,
I will give to the mountains, if only for three
With me thou wilt linger the blue wave beside;
The billows shall lull thee, my wild one, my bride!"

Then down the steep gorges went Skadi and Njörd;
Like wind through the pine-woods they swept to the fiord,
And back in three mornings they hurried again,
Bearing up to the hill-tops the sigh of the main.

So hither and thither awhile swayed the pair:
But Njord sickened soon of the fresh inland air,
And once, as he scented afar the salt sea,
"No more of the mountains," he shouted, "for me!"