Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
Sodus Bay
By Elizabeth Fries Ellet (1818–1877)I
Thy woodlands gay, and waters sparkling clear!
’T is like a dream once more
The music of thy thousand waves to hear,
As, murmuring up the sand,
With kisses bright they lave the sloping land.
Bathing thee gladly in his noontide ray;
And o’er thy headlands brown
With loving light the tints of evening play.
Thy whispering breezes fear
To break the calm so softly hallowed here.
The stamp of Nature’s sovereignty is found;
With scarce disputed reign
She dwells in all the solitude around.
And here she loves to wear
The regal garb that suits a queen so fair.
For thy sweet shades and vales of sunny rest;
Even as the swan returned,
Stoops to repose upon thy azure breast,
I greet each welcome spot
Forsaken long, but ne’er, ah, ne’er forgot!
’T was here that childhood’s hopes and cares were left;
Its early freshness, too,—
Ere droops the soul, of her best joys bereft.
Where are they?—o’er the track
Of cold years, I would call the wanderers back!
Thou art unchanged,—as bright the sunbeams play:
From not a tree or hill
Hath time one hue of beauty snatched away.
Unchanged alike should be
The blessed things so late resigned to thee.
The heart’s fair sunshine, and the dreams of youth
That in thy bosom sleep,—
Life’s April innocence, and trustful truth!
The tones that breathed of yore
In thy lone murmurs, once again restore!
Only the heedless winds in answer sigh;
Still rushing at thy call,
With reckless sweep the streamlet flashes by!
And idle as the air,
Or fleeting stream, my soul’s insatiate prayer.
Where’er through changeful life my lot may be,
A deep and hallowed spell
Is on thy waters and thy woods for me,
Though vainly fancy craves
Its childhood with the music of thy waves.