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Charles G. D. Roberts (1860-1943)

The Salt Flats


              1Here clove the keels of centuries ago
              2    Where now unvisited the flats lie bare.
              3    Here seethed the sweep of journeying waters, where
              4No more the tumbling floods of Fundy flow,
              5And only in the samphire pipes creep slow
              6    The salty currents of the sap. The air
              7    Hums desolately with wings that seaward fare,
              8Over the lonely reaches beating low.

              9The wastes of hard and meagre weeds are thronged
            10With murmurs of a past that time has wronged;
            11    And ghosts of many an ancient memory
            12Dwell by the brackish pools and ditches blind,
            13In these low-lying pastures of the wind,
            14    These marshes pale and meadows by the sea.

Notes

4] Fundy: the Bay of Fundy, south off New Brunswick, has exceptionally high tides.

5] samphire: edible seashore plant.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Selected Poems of Sir Charles G. D. Roberts (Toronto: Ryerson, 1936): 101. PS 8485 O22A17 Robarts Library.
First publication date: 19 March 1891
Publication date note: The Independent (March 19, 1891).
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/3

Form: sonnet
Rhyme: abbaabbaccdeed

Other poems by Charles G. D. Roberts

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