How should a fisher lad aspire
To win a thing as fair as this?
So after days of dumb desire
Some duskier maiden claimed his kiss.
And day by day the ripples broke
Around the fishers in the bay.
Night after night alone she woke
Till all her youth had passed away.
The swift sweet years when she was young,
Her golden years, slipped lightly past,
And thus the song remained unsung,
The rose ungathered till the last.
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