Classic Poem

Upon this beautiful expanse
Of purple waves and spray
The wanton prairie zephyrs dance
With sunbeams all the day.
And ships go sailing to and fro;
The sea-gulls circle round;
Above the plash of ebb and flow
The children's voices sound.

See how the playful pickerel speeds
Upon his devious way
Among the lissome, clinging weeds,
In hot pursuit of prey;
And here or there the greedy bass
In their erratic flight
Like dark electric shadows pass
Before our wondering sight.

Oh, what a wealth of life is here —
What pike and carp abound!
Within these waters, cool and clear,
What game may not be found!
You only have to bait your hook
And cast it in the spray;
Down — fathoms down — it sinks; and look!
You 've caught your finny prey.

O beauteous lake with pebbly shore
And skies of azure hue,
With gulls and zephyrs skimming o'er
Thy waves of restless blue,
To thee I dedicate this hymn
In melancholic spite —
To thee, where bass and pickerel swim,
But only bullheads bite.