free-verse12 lines
The Fisherman. (Mindanao, Philippines.)
by Francis William Lauderdale AdamsIn the dark waveless sea,
Deep blue under deep blue,
The fisher drifts by on the tide
In his small pole-balanced canoe.
Above him the cloud-clapped hills
Crown the dense jungly sweeps;
The cocoa-nut groves hedge round
The hut where the beach-wave sleeps.
Is it not better so
To be as this savage is,
Than to live the wage-slave's life
Of hopeless agonies?