I made no friends; as soon as school was done
I used to trudge off gravely by myself
To lord it in the kingdom of my choice;
A pebbly beach, walled in on every side
By scarred gray cliffs that shut the world of school
And farm completely out, yet left me free
To share the gladness of the romping waves,
And steep my being in the soft warm air
The spirit of adventure, desire to live, a weariness of a curbed and routine life, come to Alden with his first sight of the ocean.
For when those Atlas arms of swimming blue
Reached out as if to bring heaven down to me,
I knew myself akin to that wide scene
By the great throb with which I leaped to it there
And caught it to my spirit.
Written for the main part in free verse, but ever possessing harmonious cadence, there are various breaks in Stork's general style with lines like the sea song with which the book begins:
I have lent myself to thy will, O Sea!
To the urge of thy tidal sway;
My soul to thy lure of mystery,
My cheek to thy lashing spray.
For there's never a man whose blood runs warm
But would quaff the wine of the brimming storm.
As the prodigal lends have I lent to thee,
For a day or a year and a day.
.....
