Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
Great Head
By John Weiss (18181879)T
As in and out, along the dinted shore
We crept, the surf-beat secrets to explore,
And map the isle for afterthought to keep.
Upon the color of the cliffs and sky,
To watch light glooms of breezes scurry by,
And let each new surprise grow fancy-ripe,
From the far softness, where the sky and sea
In act of perfect marriage seemed to be,
The afternoon along the deep was led.
Some wave, more bold and eager than its mates,
Runs up, all white with hurrying, and waits,
And clings, as to a rugged verse the rhyme;
That sings a mood we fear will slip away,
Our eyes, released, toward each other stray,
And climb, and cling, and act the wave again.
Our thought and glance the far horizon sip;
And leagues of freshness break upon each lip
In tangled drift of mirth and talk and tune.
Of mornings clear, a memory, remains.
This eve we sit apart; the autumn gains;
The cricket’s reverie must share my pipe.