Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
Piscataqua River
By Thomas Bailey Aldrich (18361907)T
By woods, and fields of corn,
Thou singest, and the heaven smiles
Upon my birthday morn.
So full of vague unrest.
Would almost give my life to lie
An hour upon thy breast!
And, wrapt in dreamy joy,
Dip, and surge idly to and fro,
Like the red harbor-buoy;
To rest upon the oars,
And catch the heavy earthy scents
That blow from summer shores;
And with its parting fires
Light up the windows of the town
And burn the tapering spires;
From steeples slim and white,
And watch, among the Isles of Shoals,
The Beacon’s orange light.
Through woods, and fields of corn,
Hear thou my longing and my pain
This sunny birthday morn;
To music like thine own,
And sing it to the cliffs and capes
And crags where I am known!