Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
To the Sea
By Capel Lofft (1751–1824)Written on the Beach at Aldborough
T
Of Aldborough I pace: my gazing eye
Thy world of waters lost in the dim sky
Admiring, and thy echoing waves, that teach,
In voice of thunder, more than tongue can preach;
The knell of ages past and passing by;
And claim their ancient empire o’er the dry
And solid earth; each animating each.
Of towns long sunk, o’er which thy wild waves roar,
Of sea to land, of land to ocean turned,
I muse: and mourn, that who could amplest pour
Homeric tones on thy resounding shore
Porson is dead!—that sea of Grecian lore
Unbounded, in the abyss of fate inurned.