‘Tis harsh to hear, from ledge or peak,
\nThe cruel cormorant\u2019s tuneless shriek;
\nFierce songs they chant, in pool or cave,
\nDark wanderers of the western wave.
\nHere will the listening landsman pray
\nFor memory\u2019s music, far away;
\nSoft throats that nestling with the rose,
\nSoothe the glad rivulet as it flows.<\/p>\n
Cease, stranger! cease that fruitless word,
\nGive eve\u2019s hush\u2019d bough to woodland bird:
\nLet the winged minstrel\u2019s valley-note
\n‘Mid flowers and fragrance pause and float.
\nHere must the echoing beak prevail,
\nTo pierce the storm and cleave the gale;
\nTo call, when warring tides shall foam,
\nThe fledgling of the waters home.<\/p>\n
Wild things are here, of sea and land,
\nStern surges and a haughty strand;
\nSea-monsters haunt yon cavern\u2019d lair,
\nThe mermaid wrings her briny hair.
\nThat cry, those sullen accents sound
\nLike native echoes of the ground.
\nLo! He did all things well Who gave
\nThe sea-bird\u2019s voice to such a wave.<\/p>\n
August 27, 1835<\/p>\n
First printed in Records of the Western Shore<\/em>, Second Series, 1836, then, with a few alterations, in The Cornish Ballads<\/em>, 1869. This version from Cornish Ballads and Other Poems<\/em>, by R. S. Hawker, Vicar of Morwenstow, edited with an introduction by Charles Edward Byles, 1904.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ‘Tis harsh to hear, from ledge or peak, The cruel cormorant\u2019s tuneless shriek; Fierce songs they chant, in pool or cave, Dark wanderers of the western wave. Here will the listening landsman pray For memory\u2019s music, far away; Soft throats that nestling with the rose, Soothe the glad rivulet as it flows. Cease, stranger! cease […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1534,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1546","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.literaryplaces.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.literaryplaces.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.literaryplaces.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.literaryplaces.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.literaryplaces.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1546"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.literaryplaces.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1550,"href":"http:\/\/www.literaryplaces.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1546\/revisions\/1550"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.literaryplaces.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.literaryplaces.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}