Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Oceanica: Vol. XXXI. 1876–79.

Appendix: Sandwich Islands

Lahaina

By Charles Warren Stoddard (1843–1909)

WHERE the wave tumbles;

Where the reef rumbles;

Where the sea sweeps

Under bending palm-branches,

Sliding its snow-white

And swift avalanches;

Where the sails pass

O’er an ocean of glass,

Or trail their dull anchors

Down in the sea-grass.

Where the hills smoulder;

Where the plains smoke;

Where the peaks shoulder

The clouds like a yoke;

Where the dear isle

Has a charm to beguile

As she rests in the lap

Of the seas that enfold her.

Where shadows falter;

Where the mist hovers

Like steam that covers

Some ancient altar.

Where the sky rests

On deep wooded crests;

Where the clouds lag,—

Where the sun floats

His glittering moats,

Swimming the rainbows

That girdle the crag.

Where the new-comer

In deathless summer

Dreams away troubles;

Where the grape blossoms

And blows its sweet bubbles.

Where the goats cry

From the hillside corral;

Where the fish leap

In the weedy canal,—

In the shallow lagoon

With its waters forsaken,—

Where the dawn struggles

With night for an hour,

Then breaks like a tropical

Bird from its bower.

Where from the long leaves

The fresh dew is shaken;

Where the wind sleeps

And where the birds waken!