Music Of The Waters - online book

Sailors' Chanties, Songs Of The Sea, Boatmen's, Fishermen's,
Rowing Songs, & Water Legends with lyrics & sheet music

	130              Music of the Waters.
	The beams that flash on the oar awhile, As we row along through waves so clear, Illume its spray, like the fleeting smile That shines o'er sorrow's tear. " Nothing is lost on him who sees With an eye that feeling gave,— For him there's a story in every breeze, And a picture in every wave. Then sing to lighten the languid way, When brows are glowing, And faint with rowing, 'Tis like the spell of Hope's airy lay, To whose sound through life we pray." I must not omit the same poet's beautiful and ever-familiar Canadian boat-song, written on the River St. Lawrence. He heard it sung by the voyageurs at St. Anne—not the St. Anne where the pilgrims go, but a village, twenty-one miles from Montreal, on the Ottawa river—Sainte Anne de Bellevue, as it is called now, a flourishing suburban resort of Montreal. " The stream was smooth as glass; we said, * Arise and let's away !' The siren sang beside the boat That in the rushes lay ; And spread the sail, and strong the oar, We gaily took our way. When shall the sandy bar be cross'd ? When shall we find the bay ?"