The great gray joss on a rustic shelf,

Rakish and shrewd, with his collar awry,

Sang impolitely, as though by himself,

Drowning with his bellowing the nightingale’s cry:

“Back through a hundred, hundred years

Hear the waves as they climb the piers,

Hear the howl of the silver seas,

Hear the thunder!

Hear the gongs of holy China

How the waves and tunes combine