SUMNER ESTUARY
My dog beside me in his dog-like way
Tastes the divineness of this place and day,
Breathes-in the freshness of the large hill-air,
Basks in the blessed light spread everywhere;
Seems, even, down to gaze,
Far, far down, on the shining waterways,
Wandering ’mid shoals of sand and salty weed,
Of yon wide Estuary....
But eyes can gaze, it takes a mind to see!
How much does my poor Collie sense indeed
Of this vast, exquisite view,
All breadth, all detail too?——
Bright twisting emerald, brilliant blues,
Purple and violet, bronze and fawn,
Blending, make bloom with loveliest hues
All the broad water-lawn:
Clouds bosom it with white:
A myriad curling courses, golden-bright
Or like sharp silver, thread and flourish it
With inlaid light:
And, down its long length sinuously shining,
From right and left, rich roads of sapphire, glide
The sister rivers.... then, together twining,
Gleam past the yellow dunes into yon wide
Glitter of bare blue sea,
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