Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | Middleton | | Sonnet Written in the Churchyard at Middleton in Sussex | | Charlotte Smith (1749–1806) |
| | | PRESSED by the Moon, mute arbitress of tides, | |
| While the loud equinox its power combines, | |
| The sea no more its swelling surge confines, | |
| But o’er the shrinking land sublimely rides. | |
| The wild blast, rising from the western cave, | 5 |
| Drives the huge billows from their heaving bed; | |
| Tears from their grassy tombs the village dead, | |
| And breaks the silent sabbath of the grave! | |
| With shells and sea-weed mingled, on the shore, | |
| Lo! their bones whiten in the frequent wave; | 10 |
| But vain to them the winds and waters rave; | |
| They hear the warring elements no more: | |
| While I am doomed, by life’s long storm oppressed, | |
| To gaze with envy on their gloomy rest. | | | | |
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