Page:The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vailima Edition, Volume 8, 1922.djvu/583

NEW POEMS After Landseer's pictures.

I will go out.

Here the free wind comes with a fuller circle,

Sings, like an angry wasp, in the straining grass

Sings and whistles;

And the hurried flow of rain

Scourges my face and passes.

Behind me, clustered together, the rain-wet roofs of the town

Shine, and the light vane shines as it veers

In the long pale finger of sun that hurries across them to me.

The fresh salt air is keen in my nostrils,

And far down the shining sand

Foam and thunder

And take the shape of the bay in eager mirth

The white-head hungry billows.

The earth shakes

As the semicircle of waters

Stoops and casts itself down;

And far outside in the open,

Wandering gleams of sunshine

Show us the ordered horde that hurries to follow.

Ei! merry companions,

Your madness infects me.

My whole soul rises and falls and leaps and tumbles with you!

I shout aloud and incite you, O white-headed merry companions. 569