To the live sea,

By working, marrying, breeding, Shoreham Town,

Breaking the sunset's wistful and solemn dream,

An old, black rotter of a boat

Past service to the labouring, tumbling flote,

Lay stranded in mid-stream;

With a horrid list, a frightening lapse from the line,

That made me think of legs and a broken spine;

Soon, all too soon,

Ungainly and forlorn to lie