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Home  »  American Sonnets  »  Celia (Laighton) Thaxter (1835–1894)

Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891.

“As happy dwellers by the sea-side hear”

Celia (Laighton) Thaxter (1835–1894)

AS happy dwellers by the sea-side hear

In every pause the sea’s mysterious sound,

The infinite murmur, solemn and profound,

Incessant, filling all the atmosphere,

Even so I hear you, for you do surround

My newly-waking life, and break for aye

About the viewless shores, till they resound

With echoes of God’s greatness night and day.

Refreshed and glad I feel the full flood-tide

Fill every inlet of my waiting soul,

Long-striving, eager hope, beyond control,

For help and strength at last is satisfied,

And you exalt me, like the sounding sea,

With ceaseless whispers of eternity.