Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | New England: Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. | | The Bells of Edgartown | | E. Norman Gunnison (1836?–1880) |
| | (From A Song of Nantucket)
BUT one day more, and, O happy bells! | |
| Your peals shall ring in old Edgartown, | |
| With music that rises and falls and swells, | |
| Over the village and past the down, | |
| Music that tells of two lives made one, | 5 |
| Past Katama and Roaring-Brook, | |
| Out by Gay Head, where, at set of sun, | |
| The lighthouse gleams over hill and nook. | |
| |
| And now for one last sail on the sea, | |
| Another morn they will take their way | 10 |
| To his city home: they must say good by | |
| In a pleasant sail from the peaceful bay: | |
| They near the boat and they spread the sail, | |
| And merrily laugh in their careless glee, | |
| Though the wind is blowing half a gale, | 15 |
| For an old, old friend is the bounding sea. | |
| |
| Beyond the point where no shelter lies, | |
| The wild waves break in a blinding spray, | |
| And the dark squall gathers in angry skies, | |
| And roars and whistles across their way: | 20 |
| Down with your helm! let go the sheet! | |
| Too late! too late! for the boat goes o’er, | |
| And lies on the water a wreck complete, | |
| And miles away is the nearest shore. | | | | |
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