Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Oceanica: Vol. XXXI. 1876–79.
The Earl of Sandwich
By Letitia Elizabeth Landon (18021838)T
Those isles, the far away and fair;
A graceful fancy linked with fame,
A flattery—such as poets’ are,
And ask the earth, and ask the sky,
To color with themselves their lays,
And some associate grace supply.
That named the island from the earl,
That dreams of England might be brought
To those soft shores and seas of pearl.
When first they darkened on the deep!
Like all the wandering seaman dreamed,
When land rose lovely on his sleep.
When first they met the sailor’s eyes;
Green with the sweet earth’s southern youth,
And azure with her southern skies.
The mariner where’er he roam;
He looks upon the new-found isles,
And calls them by some name of home.