Poetry: Robert Browning

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

The poem for this week is by Robert Browning's Meeting At Night, written in 1845. I chose this one as it is not only a lovely poem, but because it is also in keeping with the sea theme that I have going through this blog (in addition to the star theme, of course!).


Meeting at Night

The gray sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, through its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!

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Poem of the Week: The Sound of the Sea

The Sound of the Sea

The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,
And round the pebbly beaches far and wide
I heard the first wave of the rising tide
Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;
A sound mysteriously multiplied
As of a cataract from the mountain's side,
Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.
So comes to us at times, from the unknown
And inaccessible solitudes of being,
The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;
And inspirations, that we deem our own,
Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing
Of things beyond our reason or control.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

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Today: The Sea in Photograph

In preparation for tomorrow's post, a lovely poem about the sea, I have posted today a photograph I took. The location is the Monterey Peninsula.

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