| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893. | | | | A Book of Sonnets | | The Sound of the Sea |
| | | THE SEA awoke at midnight from its sleep, | |
| And round the pebbly beaches far and wide | |
| I heard the first wave of the rising tide | |
| Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep; | |
| A voice out of the silence of the deep, | 5 |
| A sound mysteriously multiplied | |
| As of a cataract from the mountain’s side, | |
| Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep. | |
| So comes to us at times, from the unknown | |
| And inaccessible solitudes of being, | 10 |
| The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul; | |
| And inspirations, that we deem our own, | |
| Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing | |
| Of things beyond our reason or control. | | | | |
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