Page:Poems Larcom.djvu/43

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the legend of skadi.
27
That surge through the forest, and whisper, and rave;—
'T is Njörd, who is calling her back to the wave.

And Njörd hears a hill-note borne in on the tide,
When soft through the sunset the lazy waves glide,
Or tranced in the moonlight the weird water shines;—
'T is Skadi, whose singing floats down from her pines.

He calls, but she leaves not her rock-ranges free;
She chants from her woodlands; he stays by the sea:
A wail thrills the harp-strings of heart lost to heart,
Neither happy together, nor joyous apart.

Of sea-god and hill-maid remains not a sign,
Save the marriage of music in billow and pine.
Still sound the Norse mountains, the tide in the fiord
With the singing of Skadi, the echo of Njörd.