Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

New England: Nahant, Mass.

Wetmore Cottage

By William Wetmore Story (1819–1895)

To G. W. C. and C. P. C.

THE HOURS on the old piazza

That overhangs the sea

With a tender and pensive sweetness

At times steal over me;

And again o’er the balcony leaning,

We list to the surf on the beach,

That fills with its solemn warning

The intervals of speech.

We three sit at night in the moonlight,

As we sat in the summer gone,

And we talk of art and nature,

And sing as we sit alone;

We sing the old songs of Sorrento,

Where oranges hang o’er the sea,

And our hearts are tender with dreaming

Of days that no more shall be.

How gayly the hours went with us

In those old days that are gone,

Ah! would we were all together,

Where now I am standing alone.

Could life be again so perfect?

Ah, never! these years so drain

The heart of its freshness of feeling,

But I long, though the longing be vain.