Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By HermanMelville

389 The Enviable Isles

THROUGH storms you reach them and from storms are free.

Afar descried, the foremost drear in hue,

But, nearer, green; and, on the marge, the sea

Makes thunder low and mist of rainbowed dew.

But, inland,—where the sleep that folds the hills

A dreamier sleep, the trance of God, instils,—

On uplands hazed, in wandering airs aswoon,

Slow-swaying palms salute love’s cypress tree

Adown in vale where pebbly runlets croon

A song to lull all sorrow and all glee.

Sweet-fern and moss in many a glade are here,

Where, strown in flocks, what cheek-flushed myriads lie

Dimpling in dream, unconscious slumberers mere,

While billows endless round the beaches die.