Lake Lyrics and Other Poems

by William Wilfred Campbell

 

THE FLIGHT OF THE GULLS

 
OUT over the spaces,
The sunny, blue places,
    Of water and sky;
Where day on day merges
   In nights that reel by;
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Through calms and through surges,
Through stormings and lulls,
O, follow,
                  Follow,
The flight of the gulls.
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With wheeling and reeling,
With skimming and stealing,
    We wing with the wind,
Out over the heaving
Of gray waters, leaving
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    The lands far behind
And dipping ships’ hulls.
O, follow,
                  Follow,
The flight of the gulls.
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Up over the thunder
Of reefs that lie under,
    And dead sailors’ graves;
Like snowflakes in summer,
Like blossoms in winter,
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    We float on the waves,
And the shore-tide that pulls.
O, follow,
                  Follow,
The flight of the gulls.
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Would you know the wild vastness
Of the lakes in their fastness,
     Their heaven’s blue span;
Then come to this region,
    From the dwellings of man.
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Leave the life-care behind you,
That nature annuls,
And follow,
                    Follow,
The flight of the gulls.
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