GULLS.
Pleasant it was to view the sea-gulls strive
Against the storm, or in the ocean dive,
With eager scream, or when they dropping gave
Their closing wings to sail upon the wave;
Then as the winds and waters raged around,
And breaking billows mix’d their deafening sound,
They on the rolling deep securely hung,
And calmly rode the restless waves among.
Nor pleas’d it less around me to behold,
Far up the beach the yesty sea-foam roll’d;
Or from the shore upborne, to see on high
Its frothy flakes in wild confusion fly;
While the salt spray, that clashing billows form,
Gave to the taste a feeling of the storm.
George Crabbe, 1754–1832.