BOATING.
Faintly as tolls the evening chime,
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time,
Soon as the woods on shore look dim,
We'll sing at Saint Ann's our parting hymn;
Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast,
The rapids are near and the daylight's past!
A Canadian Boat Song. T. MOORE.
And all the way, to guide their chime,
With falling oars they kept the time.
Bermudas. A. MARVELL.
Oh, swiftly glides the bonnie boat,
Just parted from the shore,
And to the fisher's chorus-note,
Soft moves the dipping oar!
Oh, Swiftly glides the Bonnie Boat. J. BAILLIE.
Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.
Essay on Man, Epistle III. A. POPE.
On the great streams the ships may go
About men's business to and fro.
But I, the egg-shell pinnace, sleep
On crystal waters ankle-deep:
I, whose diminutive design,
Of sweeter cedar, pithier pine,
Is fashioned on so frail a mould,
A hand may launch, a hand withhold:
I, rather, with the leaping trout
Wind, among lilies, in and out;
I, the unnamed, inviolate.
Green, rustic rivers navigate.
The Canoe Speaks. R.L. STEVENSON.
Row us forth! Unfurl thy sail!
What care we for tempest blowing?
Let us kiss the blustering gale!
Let us breast the waters flowing!
Though the North rush cold and loud,
Love shall warm and make us merry;
Though the waves all weave a shroud,
We will dare the Humber ferry!
The Humber Ferry. B.W. PROCTER (Barry Cornwall).