Milton

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    I pace the sounding sea-beach and behold
        How the voluminous billows roll and run,
        Upheaving and subsiding, while the sun
        Shines through their sheeted emerald far unrolled,
    And the ninth wave, slow gathering fold by fold
        All its loose-flowing garments into one,
        Plunges upon the shore, and floods the dun
        Pale reach of sands, and changes them to gold.
    So in majestic cadence rise and fall
        The mighty undulations of thy song,
        O sightless bard, England's Maeonides!
    And ever and anon, high over all
        Uplifted, a ninth wave superb and strong,
        Floods all the soul with its melodious seas.