Verse > Anthologies > Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. > Poems of Places > Oceanica
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed.  Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Oceanica: Vol. XXXI.  1876–79.
 
Appendix: Sandwich Islands
Lahaina
Charles Warren Stoddard (1843–1909)
 
WHERE the wave tumbles;
  Where the reef rumbles;
Where the sea sweeps
  Under bending palm-branches,
Sliding its snow-white        5
  And swift avalanches;
Where the sails pass
O’er an ocean of glass,
  Or trail their dull anchors
Down in the sea-grass.        10
 
Where the hills smoulder;
  Where the plains smoke;
Where the peaks shoulder
  The clouds like a yoke;
Where the dear isle        15
Has a charm to beguile
  As she rests in the lap
Of the seas that enfold her.
 
Where shadows falter;
  Where the mist hovers        20
  Like steam that covers
Some ancient altar.
  Where the sky rests
On deep wooded crests;
  Where the clouds lag,—        25
Where the sun floats
His glittering moats,
Swimming the rainbows
  That girdle the crag.
 
Where the new-comer        30
In deathless summer
  Dreams away troubles;
Where the grape blossoms
  And blows its sweet bubbles.
 
Where the goats cry        35
  From the hillside corral;
Where the fish leap
  In the weedy canal,—
In the shallow lagoon
  With its waters forsaken,—        40
Where the dawn struggles
  With night for an hour,
Then breaks like a tropical
  Bird from its bower.
 
Where from the long leaves        45
  The fresh dew is shaken;
Where the wind sleeps
  And where the birds waken!
 
 
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