The Passionate Salmon

Come live with me and by my love

And we will all our pleasure prove

Forsake these meads, their gentle lure

For mountain air and waters pure

Live there with me and me alone

And we will wish all care begone

That London sews and Brussels sprouts

For Irish, Welsh and English clouts

And we will swim around the rocks

Of wars and economic shocks

To shallow rivers by whose falls

Melodious fish sing madrigals

The River’s Reply

If all the world and love were young

And truth in every politician’s tongue

Thy pretty pleasures might me move

Alone to be with thee my love

But summer’s babble easy flows

Which wayward winter icy shows

Thy siren’s tongue, but heart of gall

A salmon’s spring, but sorrow’s fall

And once your upward urge is spent

Thy fishy soul be seaward bent

For lonely pleasures lonely prove

And ocean treasures all, my love