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(SONG OF THE SEAL-ROOKERIES, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS)
I MET my mates in the morning (and oh, but I am old!) | |
| Where roaring on the ledges the summer ground-swell rolled. | |
| I heard them lift the chorus that drowned the breakers’ song— | |
| The Beaches of Lukannon—two million voices strong! | |
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| The song of pleasant stations beside the salt lagoons, | 5 |
| The song of blowing squadrons that shuffled down the dunes, | |
| The song of midnight dances that churned the sea to flame— | |
| The Beaches of Lukannon—before the sealers came! | |
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| I met my mates in the morning (I’ll never meet them more!); | |
| They came and went in legions that darkened all the shore. | 10 |
| And through the foam-flecked offing as far as voice could reach | |
| We hailed the landing-parties and we sang them up the beach. | |
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| The Beaches of Lukannon—the winter-wheat so tall— | |
| The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog drenching all! | |
| The platforms of our playground, all shining smooth and worn! | 15 |
| The Beaches of Lukannon—the home where we were born! | |
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| I meet my mates in the morning, a broken, scattered band. | |
| Men shoot us in the water and club us on the land; | |
| Men drive us to the Salt House like silly sheep and tame, | |
| And still we sing Lukannon—before the sealers came. | 20 |
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| Wheel down, wheel down to southward! Oh, Gooverooska go! | |
| And tell the Deep-Sea Viceroys the story of our woe; | |
| Ere, empty as the shark’s egg the tempest flings ashore, | |
| The Beaches of Lukannon shall know their sons no more! | |
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