dots-menu
×

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

Middle States: Rockaway, N. Y.

Rockaway

By Henry John Sharpe

(Excerpt)

ON old Long Island’s sea-girt shore,

Many an hour I ’ve whiled away,

In listening to the breakers’ roar

That wash the beach at Rockaway.

Transfixed I ’ve stood while Nature’s lyre

In one harmonious concert broke,

And catching its Promethean fire,

My inmost soul to rapture woke.

*****

To hear the startling night-winds sigh,

As dreamy twilight lulls to sleep;

While the pale moon reflects from high

Her image in the mighty deep;

Majestic scene where Nature dwells,

Profound in everlasting love,

While her unmeasured music swells,

The vaulted firmament above.