The haunt of birds, a desert to mankind,

Where the rough seal reposes from the wind,

And sleeps unwieldy in his cavern dun,

Or gambols with huge frolic in the sun:

There shrilly to the passing oar is heard

The startled echo of the Ocean bird,

Who rears on its bare breast her callow brood,

The feathered fishers of the solitude.

A narrow segment of the yellow sand

On one side forms the outline of a strand;[402]20