Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Oceanica: Vol. XXXI. 1876–79.

Miscellaneous: Seas of the Tropics

Tropical Night

By Epes Sargent (1813–1880)

BUT oh, the night,—the cool, luxurious night,

Which closes round us when the day grows dim,

And the sun sinks from his meridian height

Behind the ocean’s occidental rim!

Clouds in thin streaks of purple, green, and red,

Lattice his dying glory, and absorb—

Hung o’er his couch—the rallying lustre shed,

Like love’s last tender glances, from his orb.

And now the moon, her lids unclosing, deigns

To smile serenely on the charméd sea,

That shines as if inlaid with lightning-chains,

From which it faintly struggled to be free.

Swan-like, with motion unperceived, we glide,

Touched by the downy breeze, and favored by the tide.