Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | New England: Mattapoisett, Mass. | | A Seaside Idyl | | Elizabeth Stoddard (1823–1902) |
| | (Excerpt)
I WANDERED to the shore, nor knew I then | |
| What my desire,—whether for wild lament, | |
| Or sweet regret, to fill the idle pause | |
| Of twilight, melancholy in my house, | |
| And watch the flowing tide, the passing sails; | 5 |
| Or to implore the air and sea and sky | |
| For that eternal passion in their power | |
| Which souls like mine who ponder on their fate | |
| May feel, and be as they,—gods to themselves. | |
| Thither I went, whatever was my mood. | 10 |
| The sands, the rocks, the beds of sedge, and waves. | |
| Impelled to leave soft foam, compelled away,— | |
| I saw alone. Between the east and west, | |
| Along the beach no creature moved besides. | |
| High on the eastern point a lighthouse shone; | 15 |
| Steered by its lamp a ship stood out to sea, | |
| And vanished from its rays towards the deep, | |
| While in the west, above a wooded isle, | |
| An island-cloud hung in the emerald sky, | |
| Hiding pale Venus in its sombre shade. | 20 |
| I wandered up and down the sands, I loitered | |
| Among the rocks, and trampled through the sedge; | |
| But I grew weary of the stocks and stones. | |
| “I will go hence,” I thought; “the Elements | |
| Have lost their charm; my soul is dead to-night. | 25 |
| O passive, creeping Sea, and stagnant Air, | |
| Farewell! dull sands, and rocks, and sedge, farewell.” * * * * * | | | | |
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