Classic Poem

(Coregonus albus.)

Roaming afar o'er Erie Lake
The white-fish its fair surface break;
In countless myriads they explore
The windings of the shelving shore.
Now seek some green sequester'd cove,
Now off some beetling headland rove,
Now lurk where emptying rivers bear
The generous food the fish may share,
Seeking the bounteous gifts brought down
From distant woods and pastures brown.
Anon they seek the middle deeps
Where fathomless the water sleeps,
Perchance to fly from fierce pursuit
Of the great trout that o'er it shoot,
Or from the muscanonge's chase,
The greedy tyrants of their race.
The fisher stakes his net and weir,
The persecuted shoals to snare;
The seiner runs his net around
Where'er the glittering scales abound:
They drag them to the neighboring shore.
Where sands are brighten'd with their store.
Yet, spite of foe and net and seine,
Unnumber'd myriads still remain;
So countless and prolific they,
Scarce may their gleamy millions fail,
Swarming in lake, and cove, and bay,
In sleepy calm and howling gale.