138 



Bird - Lore 



GULLS 



By JANE BARBARA ALEXANDER 



O gulls, as you circle and swoop and scream, 



What is that force which urges you on? 



The voice of the wind, like the rush of a stream. 



Scent of the sea, or the spray, or the dawn? 



Or is it the sun with his buoyant rays 



That thrills you to madness and whirls you on high 



And tosses you swirling afar o'er the haze, 



'Twixt a wind-swept sea and a sapphire sky? 



Flashes of white 'twixt the sea and the sky. 



You swoop and you circle. 



You vanish and gleam. 



And some of that sadness which throbs in your cry 



Drifts through my soul like the ghost of a dream. 



And my heart's filled with sadness, and why, oh why? 



As you circle and swoop 'twixt the sea and the sky ! 



