Youth and Age on Beaulieu River

Early sun on Beaulieu water
Lights the underside of oaks
Clumps of leaves it floods and blanches
All transparent grow the branches
Which the double sunlight soaks
To her craft on Beaulieu water
Clemency the General's daughter
Pulls across with even strokes

Schoolboy-sure she is this morning;
Soon her sharpie’s rigg'd and free
Cool beneath a garden awning
Mrs. Fairclough, sipping tea
And raising large long-distance glasses
As the little sharpie passes
Sights our sailor girl to see

Tulip figure, so appealing
Oval face, so serious-eyed
Tree-roots pass'd and muddy beaches
On to huge and lake-like reaches
Soft and sun-warm, see her glide
Slacks the slim young limbs revealing
Sun-brown arm the tiller feeling
With the wind and with the tide

Evening light will bring the water
Day-long sun will burst the bud
Clemency, the General’s daughter
Will return upon the flood
But the older woman only
Knows the ebb-tide leaves her lonely
With the shining fields of mud