| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (18071882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893. | | | | Ultima Thule | Poems. Elegiac |
| | | DARK is the morning with mist; in the narrow mouth of the harbor | |
| Motionless lies the sea, under its curtain of cloud; | |
| Dreamily glimmer the sails of ships on the distant horizon, | |
| Like to the towers of a town, built on the verge of the sea. | |
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| Slowly and stately and still, they sail forth into the ocean; | 5 |
| With them sail my thoughts over the limitless deep, | |
| Farther and farther away, borne on by unsatisfied longings, | |
| Unto Hesperian isles, unto Ausonian shores. | |
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| Now they have vanished away, have disappeared in the ocean; | |
| Sunk are the towers of the town into the depths of the sea! | 10 |
| All have vanished but those that, moored in the neighboring roadstead, | |
| Sailless at anchor ride, looming so large in the mist. | |
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| Vanished, too, are the thoughts, the dim, unsatisfied longings; | |
| Sunk are the turrets of cloud into the ocean of dreams; | |
| While in a haven of rest my heart is riding at anchor, | 15 |
| Held by the chains of love, held by the anchors of trust! | | | | |
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