Summer and Autumnal Sports - An 1859 Poem from Long Island
By Isaac M'Lellan. Quodeck Bay, L.I., September 1, 1859.
- Shrilly o'er the waters blue,
- Speeds the sable wing'd curlew,
- From the farthest Labrador
- Where the frothy breakers roar;
- From the sand bar, from the rock
- Comes the migratory flock,
- Hasting to the southern land,
- Where their calm lagoons expand.
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- With a broken, plaintive cry,
- Sweeps the long-winged willet by,
- Dowitch, robin, snipe, and peep,
- Rovers of the briny deep;
- Brant birds, clad in mottled down;
- Marlins, garb'd in dusky brown;
- Beach-birds, with their plumes of gray
- Flitting o'er the open bay,
- Or across the ocean spray
- All are speeding still-their flight
- From the day-dawn till the night.
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- Hidden in the bending sedge
- At the very water's edge,
- (With his "coys" of painted wood
- Rang'd on bar or shallow flood
- To deceive the feather'd brood),
- Low the ambush'd gunner lies,
- To secure the cheated prize;
- Shrill, he stimulates the call
- Of each wild flock, musical,
- Till they hover overhead
- Till he speeds the fatal lead.
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- 'Tis September, and the last
- Of the flocks will soon have pass'd,
- For they linger not, nor stay
- Till October's mellow day,
- Bu, like shadows, disappear
- Ere the first frosts of the year.
- Soon the waters of the bay,
- Soon the marshes lone and gray,
- Reedy isle and sandy bar,
- Ocean beaches stretching far,
- Will be despite no sound
- Of the snipe will there be found.
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- But the glorious Autumn days,
- With their blue-celestial haze,
- (When the woods are all ablaze
- With the countless radiant dyes
- Caught from the resplendent skies,)
- Shall intoxicate each heart
- Wedded to the sylvan art;
- Then each Northern lake and flood
- (Buried in primeval wood,
- In profoundest solitude)
- Shall in countless legions pour
- All the duck tribes to the shore;
- Bound for some far Southern stream,
- Where the water lilies gleam;
- Where wild celery and rice
- Feed them with their rich supplies
- ('Tis the fowler's paradise!)
- There the shooter's gun shall reap
- Harvests, where the wild flocks sweep,
- O'er secluded cove or bay,
- Over marshes far away.
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- When the sharp November breeze
- Bloweth from the Arctic seas,
- Far along the Atlantic coast
- Sea birds, an unnumber'd host,
- Will the Southward course pursue,
- Where the seas stretch far and blue.
- Sea-brant, and the pied-shell drake,
- Wood-duck from the inland lake,
- Cape-brace and the speckled loon,
- Green teal, from the fresh lagoon.
- Dusky coot and sable goose,
- Gull and gannet will unloose
- Their broad pinions to the gale,
- And on freshing breezes sail,
- Pausing not, save when they shun,
- Fowler's boat or smoking gun.
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- Soon in the depths of lonesome wood,
- Forth the partridge leads her brood,
- In the stubble fields the quail
- Pipes her melancholy wail;
- In the swamp, by trickling spring
- Breaks the woodcock on the wing;
- O'er the prairies brown domain
- Grouse flocks range the grassy plain;
- In the thick entangled screen
- Of the wildernesses green,
- Far and fleet, the dappled deer,
- Headlong urge their hot career;
- In Canadian wilds, the bear
- Growls within his forest lair,
- Or the bellowing moose doth move
- Thro' the dim untrampled grove;
- Buffalo range far and wide
- Westward of Missouri's ride;
- Grisly bears maintain their reign
- Far beyond the Rocky chain
- Over hill and vale and streams,
- Wild game in abundance teems,
- Luring jocund sportsmen far
- To wide waste or river bar
- Where the merry huntings are.
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- Oh! the frantic joy that thrills
- Hunters o'er the woody hills,
- Oh! the electric shock that starts
- Life-blood throbbing thro' the heart!
- When the autumn suns arise
- In the crimson'd, glorious skies,
- And the bright clouds of the East
- Call him to the sportsman's feast;
- Call him forth with dog and gun
- Call him, till the setting sun
- Shall return him to his place
- With rich trophies of the chase.
September 29, 1859. Montrose Independent Republican 5(39): 1.