Classic Poem

(Pagrus argyrops.)

In all the tides that sweep the coast
By Labrador's remotest shores,
Far down to where the Chesapeake
Its affluent flood to ocean pours,
The porgees, bright with silvery scales,
In numberless great schools abound,
At river-mouth, in open bay,
In estuary and in sound.

Where foams the flood-tide swift and clear
O'er sands and shoals of ocean's bed,
Their flashing, shifting multitudes,
Quick darting to and fro, are spread;
Where whirls and wheeling eddies spin
O'er weedy rock and hidden ledge,
Their pearly legions mustering fill
With swarming life the channel-edge.

Rough ocean coasts and open seas,
Where cruise piratic blue-fish foes,
They soon forsake for cove and bay,
And where the shallow river flows.
Yet there the fisher still pursues;
And anchor'd yacht and dory boat,
And pier and wharf with anglers lin'd,
Thin out their schools where'er they float.