The hand-coloured headpiece is outlined with a thick black rectangular frame, in landscape orientation. It depicts a night scene of a river harbour. On the left, a row of houses circles the water, yellow lights visible in the windows. To the right, several ships are in black silhouette, with small green lights visible on the starboard side. Two figures sit in a small dinghy on the water. In the background, an arched bridge connects the two sides of the harbour. Dark hills are set against the subdued blue sky.

THE TIDAL RIVER.

Under the bridge can you hear the water swirling?
Can you feel it drift the boat along, as we rest upon our oars?
Beyond the shadow of the piers, do you see the wavelets curling,
And the twinkling lights move backward, as we slip between the shores?

Against the harbour lamps, do you see the ships loom sable,
As we thread our way between them to the green light on the quay?
Can you hear their timbers creaking, as they strain upon the cable,
While the hurrying tide speeds past them on its mad race to the sea?

Beneath the farther bank where the water shows no motion,
Can you see the dim reflection from every silver star?
And from beyond the sandhills, in the darkness of the ocean,
Feel the throbbing of the waves as they break upon the bar?

Dorothy Ward.

MLA citation:

Ward, Dorothy. “The Tidal River,” illustrated by Dorothy Ward. The Green Sheaf, No. 6, 1903, p. 10. Green Sheaf Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Yellow Nineties 2.0, Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2022. https://1890s.ca/GSV6-ward-river/

magazine_texts The Green Sheaf 6 The Tidal River Dorothy Ward 1903 Poetry