Hampton Beach

THE Sunlight glitters keen and bright, Where, miles away, Lies stretching to my dazzled sight A luminous belt, a misty light, Beyond the dark pine bluffs and wastes of sandy gray. The tremulous shadow of the Sea! Against its ground Of silvery light, rock, hill, and tree, Still as a picture, clear and free, With varying outline mark the coast for miles around. On—on—we tread with loose-flung rein Our seaward way, Through dark-green fields and blossoming grain, Where the wild brier-rose skirts the lane, And bends above our heads the flowering locust spray. Ha! like a kind hand on my brow Comes this fresh breeze, Cooling its dull and feverish glow, While through my being seems to flow The breath of a new life,—the healing of the seas! Now rest we, where this grassy mound His feet hath set In the great waters, which have bound His granite ankles greenly round With long and tangled moss, and weeds with cool spray wet. Good-bye to pain and care! I take Mine ease to-day; Here, where the sunny waters break, And ripples this keen breeze, I shake All burdens from the heart, all weary thoughts away. I draw a freer breath—I seem Like all I see— Waves in the sun—the white-winged gleam Of sea-birds in the slanting beam— And far-off sails which flit before the south-wind free. So when Time’s veil shall fall asunder, The soul may know No fearful change, nor sudden wonder, Nor sink the weight of mystery under, But with the upward rise, and with the vastness grow. And all we shrink from now may seem No new revealing,— Familiar as our childhood’s stream, Or pleasant memory of a dream, The loved and cherished Past upon the new life stealing. Serene and mild, the untried light May have its dawning; And, as in summer’s northern night The evening and the dawn unite, The sunset hues of Time blend with the soul’s new morning. I sit alone; in foam and spray Wave after wave Breaks on the rocks which, stern and gray, Shoulder the broken tide away, Or murmurs hoarse and strong through mossy cleft and cave. What heed I of the dusty land And noisy town? I see the mighty deep expand From its white line of glimmering sand To where the blue of heaven on bluer waves shuts down! In listless quietude of mind, I yield to all The change of cloud and wave and wind; And passive on the flood reclined, I wander with the waves, and with them rise and fall. But look, thou dreamer!—wave and shore In shadow lie; The night-wind warns me back once more To where, my native hill-tops o’er, Bends like an arch of fire the glowing sunset sky! So then, beach, bluff, and wave, farewell! I bear with me No token stone nor glittering shell, But long and oft shall Memory tell Of this brief thoughtful hour of musing by the Sea.