On old Cape Cod

Chapter 2: On Old Cape Cod

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

About This Book

A collection of lyrical poems that celebrates and mourns a coastal landscape through images of dunes, marshes, sea, winds, birds, flowers, lighthouses, shipwrecks, and changing seasons. The work blends close natural observation with wistful memory and maritime lore, moving between quiet descriptive pieces and dramatic evocations of storms and loss. Recurring motifs such as salt, sand, driftwood, and light bind domestic scenes and seafaring sketches to themes of transience, rootedness, and the consoling, restorative power of place.

On Old Cape Cod

How rich is life on old Cape Cod

Where autumn smiles in golden rod,

And marshes flame, though not with fire -

A region blest of heart’s desire.

In vain we’d roam the Seven Seas

There are no quainter shores than these.

Here nature in indulgent mood

Enfolds us with her solitude;

And here her cleansing winds combine

The tonic of the salt and pine,

The while old ocean’s muffled swells

Are chiming like cathedral bells.

The days drift by without a care

As sweet fern odors scent the air,

And watching wheeling gulls at play

The world of strife seems far away.

It must have been a kindly God

Who shaped the sands of old Cape Cod.