Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Americas: Vol. XXX. 1876–79. | | | | West Indies: Santa Cruz | | Santa Cruz | | Sarah Bridges Stebbins |
| | | SWEEP down to the sea, O ye silent hills, | |
| Forever green and bright, | |
| With palms on your breasts like heavenly hosts, | |
| Clothed in your robes of light! | |
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| Sweep up to the shore, O malachite waves, | 5 |
| Rippling, tinted, and deep! | |
| On ocean and hills, O tropical sun, | |
| In glowing splendor sleep! | |
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| Ah! so far away is the shining sand | |
| Where low, white breakers curl, | 10 |
| Where lovely and still lies the quiet isle, | |
| Like emerald set in pearl! | |
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| Ah! so far away; yet here in my heart, | |
| As on that Southern Sea, | |
| This beautiful isle rests soft and real,— | 15 |
| Canaan of memory! | |
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| The waters may roll o’er measureless miles; | |
| The land lie long between | |
| That isle and this self over whom gray skies | |
| Of Northern winter lean; | 20 |
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| But the spirit is free and knows not space; | |
| Dreams draw the distant near; | |
| I soar o’er that sea, I roam on those hills, | |
| And see their glory here! | | | | |
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