| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 1033. Sandy Hook |
| | | By George Houghton |
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| WHITE sand and cedars; cedars, sand; | |
| Light-houses here and there; a strand | |
| Strewn o’er with driftwood; tangled weeds; | |
| A squad of fish-hawks poised above | |
| The nets, too anxious-eyed to move; | 5 |
| Flame-flowering cactus; wingëd seeds, | |
| That on a sea of sunshine lie | |
| Unfanned, save by some butterfly; | |
| A sun now reddening toward the west;— | |
| And under and through all one hears | 10 |
| That mellow voice, old as the years, | |
| The waves’ low monotone of unrest. | |
| So wanes the summer afternoon | |
| In drowsy stillness, and the moon | |
| Appears; when, sudden, round about | 15 |
| The wind-cocks wheel,—hoarse fog-horns shout | |
| A warning, and in gathering gloom | |
| Against the sea’s white anger loom | |
| Tall shapes of wreckers, torch in hand, | |
| Rattling their life-boats down the sand! | 20 |
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