According to Places Where Women Made History:
“During her lifetime and briefly thereafter, Celia Thaxter was one of the better known women poets in America … In both content and style, her verse owes much to New England writers James Russell Lowell and John Greenleaf Whittier, who, during stays at her family's island hotel, urged Thaxter to write. The similarities only went so far, though. Thaxter's subjects and style differed from those of other regional writers of the day, for she seldom alluded to people and instead dealt chiefly with natural themes--the sea, rocks and flowers of her earlier island home”

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Read the poem below and then answer some questions about it. You can find out lots more about the author at Celia Thaxter's Circle. Finally, do some writing yourself.

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Land-locked

Black lie the hills; swiftly doth daylight flee;
And, catching gleams of sunset's dying smile,
Through the dusk land for many a changing mile
The river runneth softly to the sea.

O happy river, could I follow thee!
O yearning heart, that never can be still!
O wistful eyes, that watch the steadfast hill,
Longing for level line of solemn sea!

Have patience; here are flowers and songs of birds,
Beauty and fragrance, wealth of sound and sight,
All summer's glory thine from morn till night,
And life too full of joy for uttered words.

Neither am I ungrateful; but I dream
Deliciously how twilight falls to-night
Over the glimmering water, how the light
Dies blissfully away, until I seem

To feel the wind, sea-scented, on my cheek,
To catch the sound of dusky flapping sail
And dip of oars, and voices on the gale
Afar off, calling low, -- my name they speak!

O Earth! Thy summer song of joy may soar
Ringing to heaven in triumph. I but crave
The sad, caressing murmur of the wave
That breaks in tender music on the shore.

Your turn

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