StoryTitle("caps", "Lukannon ") ?>
This is the great deep-sea song that all the St. Paul seals sing when they are heading back to their beaches
in the summer. It is a sort of very sad seal National Anthem.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I met my mates in the morning (and, oh, but I am old!)", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where roaring on the ledges the summer ground-swell rolled;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I heard them lift the chorus that drowned the breakers' song—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Beaches of Lukannon—two million voices strong.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " The song of pleasant stations beside the salt lagoons,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The song of blowing squadrons that shuffled down the dunes,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The song of midnight dances that churned the sea to flame—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Beaches of Lukannon—before the sealers came!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I met my mates in the morning (I'll never meet them more!);", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They came and went in legions that darkened all the shore.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And o'er the foam-flecked offing as far as voice could reach", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We hailed the landing-parties and we sang them up the beach.", "") ?>
PagePoem(172, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Beaches of Lukannon—the winter wheat so tall—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog drenching all!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The platforms of our playground, all shining smooth and worn!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Beaches of Lukannon—the home where we were born!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I met my mates in the morning, a broken, scattered band.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Men shoot us in the water and club us on the land;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Men drive us to the Salt House like silly sheep and tame,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And still we sing Lukannon—before the sealers came.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " Wheel down, wheel down to southward; oh, Gooverooska, go!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And tell the Deep-Sea Viceroys the story of our woe;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ere, empty as the shark's egg the tempest flings ashore,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Beaches of Lukannon shall know their sons no more!", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>