| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 389. The Enviable Isles |
| | | By Herman Melville |
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| THROUGH storms you reach them and from storms are free. | |
| Afar descried, the foremost drear in hue, | |
| But, nearer, green; and, on the marge, the sea | |
| Makes thunder low and mist of rainbowed dew. | |
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| But, inland,—where the sleep that folds the hills | 5 |
| A dreamier sleep, the trance of God, instils,— | |
| On uplands hazed, in wandering airs aswoon, | |
| Slow-swaying palms salute love’s cypress tree | |
| Adown in vale where pebbly runlets croon | |
| A song to lull all sorrow and all glee. | 10 |
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| Sweet-fern and moss in many a glade are here, | |
| Where, strown in flocks, what cheek-flushed myriads lie | |
| Dimpling in dream, unconscious slumberers mere, | |
| While billows endless round the beaches die. | |
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