StoryTitle("caps", "The Sandpiper") ?>
Sandpiper," by Celia Thaxter (1836-94), is placed here because a goodly
percentage of the children who read it want to learn it.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Across the lonely beach we flit,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "One little sandpiper and I,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And fast I gather, bit by bit,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The scattered driftwood, bleached and dry.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The wild waves reach their hands for it,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The wild wind raves, the tide runs high,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As up and down the beach we flit,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "One little sandpiper and I.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Above our heads the sullen clouds", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Scud, black and swift, across the sky;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Like silent ghosts in misty shrouds", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Stand out the white lighthouses high.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Almost as far as eye can reach", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "I see the close-reefed vessels fly,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As fast we flit along the beach,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "One little sandpiper and I.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I watch him as he skims along,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Uttering his sweet and mournful cry;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He starts not at my fitful song,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Nor flash of fluttering drapery.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He has no thought of any wrong,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He scans me with a fearless eye;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Stanch friends are we, well tried and strong,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The little sandpiper and I.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Comrade, where wilt thou be to-night,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "When the loosed storm breaks furiously?", "") ?>
PagePoem(72, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "My driftwood fire will burn so bright!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To what warm shelter canst thou fly?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I do not fear for thee, though wroth", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The tempest rushes through the sky;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For are we not God's children both,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Thou, little sandpiper, and I?", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Celia Thaxter.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>