dots-menu
×

Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  St. Catherine’s

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

Southern States: St. Catherine’s, the Island, Ga.

St. Catherine’s

By Philip Freneau (1752–1832)

HE that would wish to rove awhile

In forests green and gay,

From Charleston Bar to Catharine’s Isle

Might sigh to find the way!

What scenes on every side appear,

What pleasure strikes the mind,

From Folly’s train, thus wandering far,

To leave the world behind.

The music of these savage groves

In simple accents swells,

And freely here their sylvan loves

The feathered nation tells;

The panting deer through mingled shades

Of oaks forever green

The vegetable world invades,

That skirts the watery scene.

Thou sailor, now exploring far

The broad Atlantic wave,

Crowd all your canvas, gallant tar,

Since Neptune never gave

On barren seas so fine a view

As here allures the eye,

Gay, verdant scenes that Nature drew

In colors from the sky.

Ye western winds! awhile delay

To swell the expecting sail,—

Who would not here, a hermit, stay

In yonder fragrant vale,

Could he engage what few can find,

That coy, unwilling guest

(All avarice banished from the mind),

Contentment, in the breast!