Hello Friends,
I hope that you can feel the rhythms of the ocean dissolving your footprints in today's 1879 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Although it's not as certain today as it was in Longfellow's time that the ocean will outlive us, one still gets the sense that Longfellow's sands are not just a beach but also the sands of time.
Enjoy.
Ellen
P.S. A curlew is a kind of shore bird you would probably recognize if you saw one but just didn't know the name of.
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
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Longfellow was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 7, 2014.