THE GARDENS OF THE SEA 5 1 



bands of dark oak woods lie on either 

 side; before you are some tufts of sand 

 grass, and a few dwarf trees are out- 

 lined black against the sky, while 

 beyond the crest the boats slip through 

 the golden haze. No colour of the 

 spectrum but you will find it there 

 at some time in the rounded year. 

 Dominant now are purples, browns, 

 and yellows merging into greens that 

 stain the ground, until the sea and sky, 

 meeting, absorb them. 



Thread through this pathless garden, 

 now stepping on grass hummocks to 

 leave the sucking mud, now going dry- 

 shod over drifted sand heaps and 

 through belts of brakes, struggling 

 waist-deep among the clinging fronds, 

 but watching for the treacherous 

 ditches where bending reeds join 

 hands over the little tide channels, 

 and the cat-tail flag, with its flat 



